After trailing for the majority of Friday’s exhibition game, West Virginia was able to turn things on late, beating George Mason, 85-78.
“Credit George Mason. They came in here ready to go, ready to fight. it was as dog fight and they took it right to us,” West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert said.
Jesse Edwards scored 21 points, including a personal 6-0 run with under three minutes to play, helping WVU close out their final exhibition game with a win.
I had to kind of force the issue with Jesse,” Eilert said. “Ultimately I wanted to win so I went to Jesse and kept forcing that issue.”
The Mountaineers struggled, specifically on defense throughout the contest. George Mason made 62 percent of their shots from the field in the first half, with eight different guys scoring as they took a 44-39 lead into halftime.
The Patriots had a balanced scoring attack, with five of their players scoring at least 11 points. They led for over 25 minutes on Friday, but would only score nine points over the final 5 minutes of the game.
Conversely, the Mountaineers used Edwards along with Quinn Slazinski to help put the Patriots away. Slazinski was the entirety of the WVU offense in the first half scoring 11 points, while knocking down a pair of three-pointers. The pair combined to score 12 of WVU’s final 17 points over the last 4:45.
Over the final 20 minutes, West Virginia stepped things up defensively, as George Mason to 39 percent shooting, while they went 4 for 11 from beyond the arc. West Virginia shot 46 percent from the field in the second half, while making four three-pointers.
WVU turned the ball over nine times leading to 11 points for the Patriots. The Mountaineers also forced nine turnovers, turning them into 30 points.
Ofri Naveh scored nine points in almost 27 minutes of playing time on the floor. He was +11 on the night. Ker Kriisa added 11 points and three assists on the night as well.
