Men’s Basketball Suffer 85-66 Defeat to George Mason
Penn State Men’s Basketball dropped a mid-week home game against George Mason Tuesday night after riding on a four game winning streak.
Despite junior Payton Banks leading the team with 21 points, Penn State (6-4) was unable to recover from countless defensive errors. Penn State opened the game trading leads with George Mason (7-3), and even came out of the half leading the Patriots 38-37, but the second half saw a defensive breakdown.
In the second half, the Lions were outscored by 20 points, and failed to finish easy shots on breakaways and collect key rebounds. George Mason’s Marquise Moore scored 25 points and 13 rebounds on the night and Otis Livingston added 18 points to give the Patriot’s a dominant 85-66 win.
After the game, Head Coach Patrick Chambers attributed a lot of the team’s struggles during the night on the defensive effort.
We have to figure that out and we have to play much harder and do a better job of defending and rebounding,” Chambers said. To have 44 points in the paint when we have players like Mike, Lamar , Julian and Josh Reaves, that shouldn’t be.”
Looking forward, the team is headed to Newark, NJ Saturday to face the University of Pittsburgh in the Never Forget Tribute Classic at 2:30 p.m. For Patrick Chambers, he’s confident his team will be prepared for the matchup.
“There is a lot of basketball to go and we will get back to practice tomorrow,” he said. “These are all fixable things we can get better at, that we can control. As long as we do that tomorrow, Friday and Saturday…I still like the direction we are headed in."
Despite junior Payton Banks leading the team with 21 points, Penn State (6-4) was unable to recover from countless defensive errors. Penn State opened the game trading leads with George Mason (7-3), and even came out of the half leading the Patriots 38-37, but the second half saw a defensive breakdown.
In the second half, the Lions were outscored by 20 points, and failed to finish easy shots on breakaways and collect key rebounds. George Mason’s Marquise Moore scored 25 points and 13 rebounds on the night and Otis Livingston added 18 points to give the Patriot’s a dominant 85-66 win.
After the game, Head Coach Patrick Chambers attributed a lot of the team’s struggles during the night on the defensive effort.
We have to figure that out and we have to play much harder and do a better job of defending and rebounding,” Chambers said. To have 44 points in the paint when we have players like Mike
Looking forward, the team is headed to Newark, NJ Saturday to face the University of Pittsburgh in the Never Forget Tribute Classic at 2:30 p.m. For Patrick Chambers, he’s confident his team will be prepared for the matchup.
“There is a lot of basketball to go and we will get back to practice tomorrow,” he said. “These are all fixable things we can get better at, that we can control. As long as we do that tomorrow, Friday and Saturday…I still like the direction we are headed in."
