It was a tale of two halves for American today. AU came out firing against George Mason, scoring their first 12 points on four 3-pointers. With a little more than five minutes left in the first half, the Eagles hit their seventh three to go up 23-15. The two teams traded baskets more or less for the rest of the half, and we went into the intermission with American on top, 34-27.

Now, while AU had the lead, they weren’t necessarily shooting that well. They shot 5-14 from two in the first half and didn’t attempt a free throw. Their defense, however, stood out. Focusing on Mason big Josh Oduro, American did a good job denying entry passes and doubling when he did get the rock. That, coupled with fast hands on the perimeter, led to 6 steals for the Eagles while holding Oduro to 5 points in the first half.

After halftime, the wheels came off a little bit.

Instead of progressing through the offense, there was a lot of settling for long 2s to open the half. George Mason was rolling to start, taking a 9-2 run to tie it up. American seemed a little knocked off-balance by the start, and was unable to regain composure for most of the rest of the game. After being tied at 36 a few minutes into the second half, the Patriots outscored AU 37-20. It’s hard to find many bright spots from the second half, with nearly every position forcing long 2s or taking shots too early in the shot clock. The Princeton offense relies on patience, and it looked like the Eagles lost their patience after George Mason tied it up.

Looking at game performance as a whole, Colin Smalls stands out as the only American player to hit double digits. He scored 21 points while going 3-6 from three. Jaxon Knotek hit 3 of his 5 shots – all for three – and grabbed 7 rebounds. Matt Rogers also had a stand-out first half, with 6 pts, 2 assists, and several possessions where his defensive positioning or shot contest prevented a Patriot score.

While he wasn’t asked about it directly, Coach Brennan referred to difficulties in the rotation caused by injury – including needing Lincoln Ball to play center. He made it sound like this was a short-term problem, which indicates that Jermaine Ballisager Webb could return from his leg injury by Patriot League play.

The Eagles have their home opener Wednesday night against William & Mary, where they hope to stop this season-starting skid.