VCU eliminates George Mason from the CAA tournament, nation's longest winning streak comes to an end

The VCU Rams have now eliminated George Mason from the CAA tournament for the 5th time since 2004. The Patriots did not look like themselves in this one as the nation's longest winning streak comes to an end at 16 games. The Rams first half defense and barrage of uncontested three-pointers in the first half doomed the Patriots from the start. Mason was frustrated on offense all day long while VCU had an answer for all of their runs. The Rams had 11 three-pointers, one shy of the CAA tournament record and it stunned the Patriots. The frustration reached it's breaking point when Mike Morrison fouled out while hitting Bradford Burgess on a three-point attempt. Burgess sank all three free-throws and Mason looked pretty lifeless after that.
The Patriots inability to penetrate VCU's zone defense resulted in a lot of ill-advised shots. Mason never settled on offense, despite going a few runs in the beginning of the 2nd half. At half time the Rams were clearly beating the Patriots at their own game: three-pointers, forced turnovers, and 13 assists to George Mason's 1. The second half didn't bring much change for the Patriots as they only finished with 8 assists and were engaging in way too many one-on-one battles.

You have to credit VCU's defensive game plan in this one. They prevented the Mason front court from making any kind of contributions early on. Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson were frustrated and both ended up in the foul trouble. Cam Long tried to do too much in the 2nd half and didn't really get any support. It's a shame to finish a CAA season like this without cutting down the nets in Richmond but Mason now has to roll with the punches and prepare for a new challenge.
George Mason now has long week ahead until Selection Sunday where they await their fate in the NCAA tournament. Various experts have penciled them in as a lock for an at-large but it still would have been nice to eliminate any doubt. Don't know how much this loss will affect their seeding, perhaps they might not get that #7 spot we have been seeing recently.
[Pictures via SmugMug]