FAIRFAX, Va. – The Bridgewater College men's basketball team competed in an exhibition against George Mason on Tuesday night
THE BASICS
Final Score: George Mason 84; Bridgewater 60
Records: Bridgewater 9-3; George Mason 9-2
HOW IT HAPPENED

• George Mason hopped out in front early with four unanswered before Aaron Oates drained a three pointer off a Khalil Ward offensive board. GMU responded with another sequence of back-to-back makes before Jordan Cooper nailed a long ball to get BC to within two. The Patriots responded with a second-chance bucket of their own, but a Will Dunlap bucket from beyond the arc got the GMU lead down to just a point. The teams traded makes before a Cooper make at the charity stripe knotted the game at 14-14. Steve Burgess got to the line following the Cooper make and drained a pair to give BC a 16-14 lead. George Mason tied the game up with two makes of its own, but Burgess drained another BC three pointer to put the Eagles in front once more.
• The Patriots wrestled the lead back with 9:30 to go in the half to go ahead 20-19. The make sparked a 6-0 GMU run before Ward drained a three pointer. Just ahead 24-21, George Mason's offense went to work. The Patriots ended the half on a 17-5 run to take a 41-26 lead into the intermission.
• Both sides traded makes to open the half before Cooper found Landon Hawes from long range. GMU pushed the lead out to 45-31 before Ward capitalized on a missed three pointer with a thunderous put-back dunk. After a stop, Cooper drained another three pointer to get BC back to within nine forcing a GMU timeout. Two straight makes for the Patriots got their offense rolling again and sparked an 8-1 run before Woody Machado nailed a long-range jumper. GMU stretched the lead with a 6-2 run to make it 59-45 nearly midway through the second frame.
•  The Patriots left their top unit in and stormed ahead down the stretch outscoring BC 24-10  before a Mason Ramey jumper got BC some momentum with just north of a minute to go. Ramey added a block on the other end and a Ryan Steger free throw and an RK Law mid-range make made it 84-60 at the final horn.

MATCH NOTES

• Cooper led BC offensively with 10 points. Dunlap and Burgess added eight each in the exhibition.
• Keyshawn Hall led all scorers 36 points, the first 30-point game for a Patriot in over a year.
• Oates and Topper led BC defensively. Topper grabbed five boards while Oates grabbed five steals.
• BC shot 35.3% from long range but a 62% mark from the floor by GMU proved to be too much.

UP NEXT
Bridgewater takes some time off for the Christmas holiday before returning to Nininger Hall to face Salisbury on Dec. 29 at 2:30 p.m.