The Minutemen (19-5, 6-4), fresh off a confidence-boosting road win in Rhode Island, laid an egg against George Mason (9-15, 2-8) in the Mullins Center Wednesday night, losing 91-80.
It was the first loss at home (10-1) for Massachusetts this season.
UMass had an awful night from the field, hitting a paltry 39.7% of their FGs against a defense ranked 255 in the NCAA.
George Mason led 42-32 at the half, and never let their lead shrink to less than seven after that.
Sherrod Wright had 22 points for the Patriots, while Erik Copes recorded 12 points and 15 rebounds.
Trey Burke came off the bench and scored a career-best 20 points for the Minutemen. Cady Lalanne added 11 points and recorded 10 rebounds in the loss.
Meanwhile, the drama continues to build in the Patriot League, as Boston University (18-8, 11-2) had to sweat out a win against Colgate (9-15, 3-10). Colgate led by three at the half, but the Terriers went on an 11-0 run at the start of the second half to take the lead.
Boston U. led by as many as 12 late, but Colgate made it interesting in the later stages by sinking three 3-point shots, still Boston U. was able to hold on.
Dom Morris led the scoring for the Terriers, knocking down 16 points, while Colgate’s Murphy Burnatowski had 27 points.
Boston U. maintained their first place standing in the conference, in which they are currently tied with American, who handled Lehigh Wednesday night 64-44.
Boston U. hosts American next Wednesday, where they will look to avenge their 30-point loss from earlier this season.
POSTPONEMENTS: The Boston College/Georgia Tech game was postponed, with a makeup scheduled for Thursday at 5pm, and the Northeastern/UNC-Wilmington game was postponed until Thursday at 7pm.
