Paul Hewitt’s George Mason squad has played two of the teams expected to contend for the MAAC title this season in Manhattan and Iona, and Saturday night the Patriots moved to 2-0 in such games with an 86-81 win over Iona on NBCSN. George Mason shot 43.3% from the field, which was below the 50 percent the Gaels shot, but they made up for that by taking advantage of Iona miscues.
Tim Cluess’ team committed 17 turnovers on the night, and George Mason converted those turnovers into 14 points and held a nine-point advantage in the points off turnovers category. Marquise Moore scored 23 points and dished out three assists to lead the way for the Patriots, who also outscored Iona 27-15 from the foul line. Shevon Thompson tallied another double-double with 13 points and 15 rebounds, and Isaiah Jackson matched his career high with 14 points.
Kelvin Amayo scored 23 points and David Laury IV added 16 to go along with 16 rebounds for Iona, which dropped to 6-4 on the season. With the win George Mason (4-6) picked up its first win over a Division I opponent since they beat Manhattan on a Jalen Jenkins 75-footer on November 29.