George Mason vs. Towson: Patriots sloppy in 72-60 victory The three starting guards shot a combined 4 of 13 for 11 points and forwards Ryan Pearson and Mike Morrison teamed for just six defensive rebounds. "Mentally we just weren't where we had been and where we were moving in the right direction," said Coach Paul Hewitt, whose team shot well and scored at ease in the previous two games. This can happen. This happens to teams all over the country. It happens to whomever - good, bad. Now we've got to make sure we clean some of the things up. Despite the dodgy performance, the Patriots did enough to secure their eighth victory in nine games and defeat the Tigers (0-20, 0-8) for the 19th consecutive time since Towson joined the conference 10 years ago. Wright, a sophomore reserve guard, rescued the Patriots with a three-pointer at the 1 minute 35 second mark for a 66-58 lead after Towson's Erique Gumbs missed the front end of a one-and-one. The Patriots then forced turnovers on consecutive possessions and Wright made two free throws for a 10-point edge. He later hit two more from the line to post his season high in points, two shy of his career best. "I got the ball in certain spots that I know I can score in," said Wright, who shot 7 of 12, made both three-point attempts and converted all six free throws. I was hitting shots, so I kept being more aggressive. Murray, whose son Luke is a Towson assistant coach, sat in George Mason Athletic Director Tom O'Connor's courtside seats. Appropriately, this game looked like "Groundhog Day" - eerily similar to the teams" first meeting last month when the Patriots failed to pull away and ended up winning by the same margin. Marcus Damas, who burned the Patriots for 25 points in Towson, scored 12 of his 19 in the second half Saturday. Robert Nwanko contributed 14 points and 13 rebounds, including eight offensive. The Patriots" defensive rebounding total was the same as Towson's offensive haul (23). "They basically were just throwing the ball off the glass and pushing us out of the way and going and getting it," Pearson said. At halftime, "Coach was really upset." The Patriots allowed six offensive rebounds in the first three minutes. Exasperated, Hewitt called a timeout. The Patriots went ahead for good after five minutes but never settled into a rhythm and were plagued by poor shot selection and rebounding. They closed the half with eight straight points - three-pointers by Wright and Pearson and Vaughn Gray's buzzer-beating layup - for a 44-27 lead. However, "the scoreboard was very deceiving because we didn't play well at all," Hewitt said. The very first play [of the game], we broke down and we had five guys running in five different directions. It was foretelling of what was to come. The second half offered much of the same until the Tigers scored eight straight to pull within five with about five minutes left. The teams exchanged baskets until Wright hit the key three-pointer. Said Hewitt: "That's what happens when you have a good team: You've got someone that steps up and saves you, and [Wright] saved us today." Patriots notes: Freshman forward Erik Copes missed his third straight game with a neck injury. [ellip] The Patriots, who will host UNC Wilmington (8-10, 4-4) on Monday, have won 13 straight league home games.