NCAA News Wire
West Virginia 90, George Mason 65
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
It was pretty easy to analyze how George Mason lost Thursday night.
The Patriots kept turning the ball over and West Virginia kept converting their mistakes into points.
Forcing 24 turnovers and cashing them in for 31 points, the Mountaineers led by 26 at the half and cruised to an 90-65 rout in the first round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off at Coliseo Roberto Clemente in San Juan.
Guard Patrick Holloway sank five 3-pointers and scored a game-high 17 points for George Mason (1-2), and center Shevon Thompson added 14 points. But the Patriots coughed up 16 first-half turnovers and WVU (3-0) cashed them in for 19 points.
Forward Devin Williams scored 15 of his 16 points in the first half, and forward Jonathan Holton also added 16 points and point guard Juwan Staten had 13.
The only negative for the Mountaineers was that Williams left with 16:06 left after appearing to injure his knee following a collision in the lane.
George Mason didn’t shoot the ball badly in the first half, sinking 45 percent from the field. But it turned the ball over 40 percent of the time and the quicker Mountaineers made it pay time after time.
The lead grew to 28 late in the first half on a dunk by guard Jevon Carter, rendering the second half into one played solely for the exercise.
The Patriots meet New Mexico on Friday in a consolation-round game. West Virginia takes on old Big East rival Boston College in the semifinals.
