The Patriots sneak by Lamar on Senior Night

The three seniors, Ryan Pearson, Mike Morrison and Andre Cornelius (left to right) had an emotional Senior Night in the Patriot Center Saturday as they battled Lamar in the ESPN BracketBuster game, winning by a final margin of 75-71 (John Powell).

On the night Andre Cornelius, Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson waved goodbye to the Mason faithful, they led their squad to a hard-fought 75-71 victory over Lamar in the annual BracketBuster contest.

“The emotions have been running high for me all day,” said Pearson after the game, “you know this is big time, I’ve been here a long time, I feel like I’ve been through a lot with this team.”

The Patriots (23-6, 14-2) squandered a 17-point second half lead as they fell down by one point, 69-68, with 3:21 left in the game. After dominating the first 30 minutes, including an impressive 47-34 halftime margin, Lamar (17-10) caught fire from beyond-the-arc and picked up their defensive intensity.

“They [Lamar] played hard, they never gave up,” Pearson said.

However, with the game on the line, the seniors took control.

Cornelius hit two game-changing three-pointers in the final eight minutes, including the shot that put Mason back on top, 71-69, after Lamar went ahead just seconds earlier.

He finished the game with nine points before fouling out.

Cornelius was not the only senior who was clutch, as Pearson was once again the hero. With just six seconds left on the clock and the Patriots up two points, Pearson hit back-to-back free throws to ice the game.

“We made some big shots again down the stretch,” Pearson said, “you know, Sherrod made a big three again, I think we just executed better in the last minute than they did.”

In the midst of his emotional evening, Pearson went for 17 points and 10 rebounds, giving him his 12th double-double on the season, continuing his strong campaign for the conference player of the year.

“In basketball it takes one guy to win a game, and I think he’s [Pearson] that type of kid,” said Lamar head coach Pat Knight, the son of the famous Bob Knight. “I think if he was playing in the Big 12, Big 10 he’d be all-conference.”

Fellow senior Morrison also stepped up with eight points, three rebounds and three assists.

Outside of the seniors, Sherrod Wright continued his strong play with another big-time shot late in the game from three-point range en route to his 13-point evening.

“I was just thinking, hey, I got to get this shot up, and if I make this shot we got a chance to win,” Wright said.

Despite letting the Cardinals back in the game in the second half, the Patriots still shot over 57 percent from the field for the game, including an uncanny 68 percent performance in the first half.

On the other hand, the major concerns for this squad, turnovers and rebounding, were once again an issue Saturday. They lost the rebounding battle 30-26, got outscored in the paint 34-28, and gave away 19 turnovers.

“I just thought there were some possessions that we had some very makeable shots, they didn’t go down and we turned the ball over, you know, I knew it was going to come back and get us,” Paul Hewitt said.

The Patriots will no longer have the comfort of playing in front of the home crowd as they hit the road, finishing the season at Northeastern Wednesday, Feb. 22, and at VCU Saturday, Feb. 25.

Hewitt made it clear that this team is focused on finishing the regular season strong in order to lock up the top spot in the CAA.

“Our goal the whole year is to get the number-one seed in the conference tournament,” Hewitt said.