The game tonight started off very slowly. It took nearly five minutes for either team to score their first baskets. Both teams played very tough defense throughout the first half. Although both teams shot the ball very well in the first half (George Mason 52.4 percent; Holy Cross 40.9 percent), both teams struggled holding on to the ball. The teams combined for 20 first-half turnovers.

One thing that George Mason did extremely well with in the first half was shooting from the three-point line. As a team they shot 5-for-9 from beyond the arc.

At the end of the half George Mason’s 7-point lead was largely because of the solid play of Campbell, who had 7 first-half points, and John Vaughan, who shot 3-of-5 from beyond the arc and had 11 first-half points.

The second half was the same type of story. It took a while for both teams to start scoring, but in time George Mason picked up where they left off. With about 15 minutes left in the half, George Mason’s Louis Birdsong threw a behind-the-back pass to Gabe Norwood, who then finished the play with a strong one-handed dunk. This gave George Mason a 34-25 lead over Holy Cross. Holy Cross did get back into the game. With 8:24 left, Keith Simmons drove into the lane and threw up a floater that went in; he was also fouled and was able to convert on the free throw. This was part of a huge 10-2 run the Holy Cross put up, cutting George Mason’s lead to 43-41. That was as close as the Crusaders would get for the rest of the game though, because of late turnovers.