Fairfax, Va.--Playing its second road game in less than 48 hours, Georgia State fell at George Mason, 66-51, Saturday afternoon at the Patriot Center.
The Panthers dropped their second straight to fall to 8-8 overall, 3-3 in the CAA. Dante Curry led Georgia State with 12 points on four three-pointers, and Marques Johnson and Brandon McGee added 10 points each.
Mason improved to 12-5 overall, 4-2 CAA, including a perfect 8-0 at home. Preseason all-CAA selection Cam Long led the Patriots with 18 points, and Ryan Pearson added 14.
The Panthers stayed close for much of the game and were within 43-41 after a three-point play by James Fields with 9:31 to play. But George Mason scored the next nine points to build a 52-41 lead at 7:06. Curry stopped the run with a trey cut the Panthers' deficit to eight, but Georgia State could get no closer the rest of the way.
"We put ourselves in position, within a basket against a really good team on the road, but we just couldn't make enough plays down the stretch," said GSU head coach Rod Barnes.
"I thought we missed some easy shots and had some great opportunities, but you have to convert those on the road," continued Barnes. "Give credit to George Mason. They are a very good team, and I don't think many teams in our league, if any, are going to come in here and beat them."
The Patriots held Georgia State's leading scorer, Eric Buckner, scoreless as the 6-10 post player was just 0-for-2 from the field while battling a slight leg injury.
Both teams started slowly, and GSU held an 11-8 lead after a three-pointer by McGee with 10 minutes left in the first half. But the Panthers endured a scoring drought of nearly seven minutes to fall behind 20-11 before Curry's trey broke the ice at the 3:38 mark. Despite the cold spell, GSU trailed just 24-21 at the intermission. The Panthers managed to tie the game at 25-all early in the second half but could never get the lead back.
In the middle of a grueling stretch with three straight road games against three of the top teams in the CAA, the Panthers struggled to score, shooting just 35 percent from the field and committing 20 turnovers while scoring a season-low 51 points.
"The schedule is tough right now," said Barnes, whose Panthers played at James Madison Thursday night in a game postponed by the winter weather in Atlanta, "but to be the type of basketball team that we want to be, we have to learn how to win these type of tough road games."
On a positive note, the Panthers were much improved from the free throw line for the second straight game, going 11-for-14 to follow Thursday's 12-for-15 effort at JMU.
However, Mason shot 31 free throws to just 14 for GSU.
Georgia State next plays at VCU Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Richmond, Va.
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