Sport: College HoopsPick Selection: Virginia Commonwealth Rams -3 -105
George Mason Patriots at Virginia Commonwealth Rams 7:00 PM ET
Virginia Commonwealth Rams -3 -105
Virginia Commonwealth catches a nice break here. The Rams have only two conference losses on the season and both came to teams that George Mason has defeated the last two rounds. They easily defeated the Patriots in both meetings this year, winning by 14 and 13 points, and there is no reason to think it won?t be the same result on Monday. Virginia Commonwealth also has the luxury of having the extra day off as George Mason has already played three games in the last three days with this being its fourth in four.
The Patriots broke a four-game losing streak to the Pride and a two-game losing streak to the Monarchs and beat one of the league's top four teams for the first two times in eight meetings this season. This George Mason team and the one from last year are completely different and this season?s version is fortunate to even be in this stop. Saturday and Sunday marked the first time since January 20th that the Patriots have won consecutive games. They won four in a row earlier this year but none of those came against the league?s upper tier.
Two things really stand out in this matchup. Virginia Commonwealth has been red hot from long range as it is hitting 42.7 percent over its last five games while the Patriots defense has allowed opponents to shoot 46.4 percent from behind the arc over the same span. Also, George Mason is shooting just 37.6 percent with its own offense. Second, the Patriots have struggled this season from the free throw line but never more so than now as it is hitting a lowly 53.9 percent over its last five games. The Rams are hitting close to 20 percent better from the stripe.
History is not on the side of George Mason as the Patriots will now try to become the first team to win four straight games in the CAA Tournament. Give them a lot of credit for what they have done thus far but defeating the 3rd, 2nd and 1st seeds in three days is not going to happen with this young team. The Rams have an RPI of 59 and a loss in this game might mean no at-large bid to the Big Dance. Virginia Commonwealth runs away with this as the Patriots won?t have enough in the tank to keep up. Play Virginia Commonwealth Rams 2 Units
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