George Mason Finds Mr. Wright, Tops Richmond

Continuing his early campaign for Colonial Player of the Year, Sherrod Wright contributed 14 points in the first half and saved his final three for the end of the second, burying a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for George Mason as they beat the Richmond Spiders, 67-64.

Wright's game winner capped an 18-3 rally from the Patriots to close the game that began after the under-eight timeout and with the team facing a 12-point deficit. During the run, Mason hit seven of its final 10 shots.

Both teams began the first half on fire with points racking up in the first 20 minutes. Richmond was led by the sharp shooting of senior guard Darien Brothers. Brothers began the game by knocking down his first five 3-point attempts, giving him 15 points with 7:13 left in the first half.

But Sherrod Wright just couldn't be contained, continuing to lead the Patriots by example.

In the first half, when the Patriot defense was essentially nowhere to be found, Wright put in a layup just 3:46 into the game, cutting the deficit to 11-9. On the following Richmond inbounds pass, Wright made a heads-up defensive read and stole the pass before it even hit Spider hands and threw down a dunk, leaving Richmond's heads spinning.

Once again scoring with supreme efficiency (75.86 percent) he missed three shots. This marks the third straight game that Wright has scored 20 points and done so with at least 60 percent efficiency.

The Patriots were able to tighten up defensively after a rough start to the second half. During the rally in the last seven-and-a-half minutes, they held the Spiders to 1 of 5 shooting after they had shot just under 50 percent during the first thirty two.