ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. South Dakota State suffered a last-second loss for the second consecutive night as Keyshawn Halls jumper with three seconds to play lifted George Mason to a 73-71 win over the Jackrabbits in their second game of the Jacksonville Classic at Flagler Gymnasium on Monday night.
The loss came on the heels of Sunday nights game against UCF, where the Jacks held the lead twice in the final minute but lost to the Knights 83-80.
The hard part about this game is that both teams want to win and its really hard to win, SDSU head coach Eric Henderson said. Weve made some strides in our connectivity and I thought we competed harder in the last week and thats what weve really been focused on. But to win games against really good teams, you have to put it all together and we havent done that.
The first half was a back-and-forth battle as the Jacks opened the game by taking a 10-5 lead but George Mason scored five straight points to tie the game at 10-10.
Although Zeke Mayo scored his 1,000th career point on a layup with 8:52 to go in the first half, neither team could break away before SDSU went into halftime with a 36-34 lead.
Both teams continued to stay within one possession in a game that featured 14 ties and 14 lead changes in the first 24 minutes until the Patriots scored back-to-back buckets to take a 58-53 lead with 7:22 left in the second half.
George Mason held on to its five-point lead until 4:36 left in the second half when William Kyle III and May made back-to-back jumpers to bring it to 65-64 with 3:23 to play.
After Hall and Mayo exchanged baskets, Mayo was called for a technical foul that allowed the Patriots to take a 69-66 lead on a pair of Darius Maddox free throws with 2:41 to go. Mayo would make amends on the next possession as his 3-pointer tied the game at 69-69 with 2:06 to play and Luke Appel gave the Jacks a 71-69 lead on a layup with one minute to go.
But Mayo fouled Barak Okojie on the following possession and although he missed the front end of a one-and-one, Amari Kelly grabbed his 10th rebound of the game and was fouled by Appel, leading to a pair of game-tying free throws with 51 seconds to play.
Okojie stole the ball from Mayo to give the ball back to George Mason with 29 seconds left to play and Hall played the hero, driving into the lane and hitting the game-winning jumper to give the Patriots the win.
Mayo led the Jacks with 22 points, 12 rebounds and five assists while Kyle III came off the bench to score 14 points. Appel Appel had 13 points and five rebounds while Nate Barnhart scored eight points in his first start of the season, Garry had seven points and four rebounds and Charlie Easley scored five points.
Hall led the Patriots with 21 points and 15 rebounds while Maddox had 14 points and Kelly had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Okojie also had 12 points off the bench.
SDSU shot 48.3 percent from the floor and 8-for-21 (38.1%) on 3-point attempts. The Patriots shot 45.8 percent from the floor including 10-of-26 (38.5%) from downtown. The Jacks also had six turnovers compared to 11 for George Mason.
After the game, Henderson acknowledged the Jacks issues with the free throw boxouts but also cited some of the things they havent done right throughout their 1-4 start.
You could arguably say that weve lost three games on free throw boxouts and weve missed free throws down the stretch, Henderson said. Weve turned it over late and obviously, we need to make plays especially in the things we can control.
Despite the losses, Henderson was optimistic about his teams performance at the classic due to their connectivity and work ethic. With the Jacks set to travel to Southern Mississippi on Wednesday, he believes his team is making progress as it continues its non-conference schedule.
The last week especially after the Dakota Wesleyan game and the Kansas State game I didnt feel like we were connected, Henderson said. I didnt feel like we stuck together when it got hard and we werent playing well. We played well here and we were connected here. Our huddles were tight. We were loving each other at a high level. I think the takeaway is that when we do that we can play with anybody. But it takes more than that to win games against really good competition and so I hope we continue to have that connectivity and can build on that but also learn that it takes more than that.
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