George Mason bounced back after their five game losing streak with an impressive win over Navy last night. Josh Oduro was huge with his career-high 32 points. They were still without starting point guard Xavier Johnson, who was still out due to COVID protocols but got some great support from their bench in Otis Frazier III. They finally kept the turnover under double digits and seemed to find a rhythm on offense in the second half. They tightened up their defense in the second half as well after allowing way too many easy baskets for Navy in the first.

Ticket Gaines had another solid outing with 13 points and nine rebounds. D’Shawn Schwartz hit some big baskets late while DeVon Cooper had a quiet night, going 0-for-5 on three-pointers and finishing with four points. It was good to see Otis Frazier out there for more than a few minutes, I think they will need this presence off the bench more once conference play begins.

Mason now has a week and half off until their next game on the road at Georgia Dec 18th. A much needed break to settle and continue to figure things out. This was an important win to get them out their funk and focus on what they were doing better at the beginning of the season. I liked their effort on defense last night, it made the difference in the second half. They still aren’t shooting the ball as well as they were but they found Oduro inside all night, which will continue to be their go-to for this season. Point guard Ronny Polite should be returning after the break, which gives them another option at that position which should hopefully help to provide some stability there going forward.