Jan. 8, 2011
NORFOLK, Va. - Frank Hassell scored on a layup with just over a minute to go and made two foul shots to ice the game with 1.9 seconds left to lift Old Dominion University men's basketball to a 69-65 win over George Mason on Saturday. The victory was the 200th career win at ODU for head coach BlaineTaylor. Overall he is 342-171 in 18 years as a head coach and 200-106 in his 10thseason at ODU.
Old Dominion (12-3/3-1) went up 63-57 with less than four minutes to play on a layup by Chris Cooper but George Mason (10-5/2-2) came back to tie the score at 65 on a three-pointer by Cam Long.
The Monarchs came right back down and retook the lead on a layup by Hassell and stopped the Patriots in their next possession. After ODU came up empty Andre Cornelius took a shot from the right wing but hit the back of the iron and Ben Finney pulled down the rebound. Hassell knocked two two foul shots with 1.9 seconds to go to ice the game.
The game was tight throughout as neither team led by more than seven points. There were nine lead changes and six times the game was tied.
The Patriots jumped out to the largest lead of the first half at 19-14 on a jumper by Luke Hancock and a three-pointer by Long, but ODU came right back with an 8-0 run, with two points apiece coming from Chris Cooper and Hassell and four coming from Kent Bazemore to take a 22-19 lead.
After Mason took a 30-27 lead, ODU ended the half on another run, tying the game on a three-pointer by Finney and scoring the final four points of the half to take a 34-30 halftime lead.
Hassell led four Monarchs in double figures with 18 points and nine rebounds, while Bazemore had 13, James 12 and Finney 11. Chris Cooper scored a career high tying nine points as well. Finney and James also chipped in four assists apiece, while both Finney and Bazemore had two steals each. Finney now has 165 career stealswhich rank him eight in ODU history along with Darrin Mcdonald ('90).
Long led the Patriots with 23 points and seven boards while Ryan Pearson and Hancock each added 13. Hancock also dished out seven assists on the day, while Longwas a perfect four-for-four from three-point range.
ODU outrebounded the Patriots, 35-31, including 18 offensive rebounds which ODU got23 second chance points. The Monarchs shot .467 (28-60) from the floor (.536 in thesecond half). Mason was .481 (25-52) for the game.
The crowd of 8,344 gives the Monarchs a 7,423 per game home average thus far thisseason. This is the 24th crowd of over 8,000 in the history of the Constant Center.
The Monarchs return to action on Thursday night when they play at Drexel. Thatcontest will be televised on ESPNU on Jan. 13.