George Mason Uses a Little Magic to Advance

CLEVELAND - Mike Morrison returned to earth after the second of his thunderous two-handed dunks in thefinal minute wrapped up George Mason's 61-57 victory over Villanova, and was so happy he bounded the whole way down the court. Momentslater, his teammate Luke Hancock, whose stepback 3-pointer with 19.8 seconds gave the Patriots their final lead, left with court with both arms raised. Though trailing most of the game, eighth-seeded George Mason (27-6) took advantage of several Villanova miscues down the stretch to advance to the third round, winning its first N.C.A.A. game since its magical Final Four run in 2006. Villanova (21-12) finished its season with six consecutive losses. The Wildcats led, 54-48, with less than 4 minutes 40 seconds to play, but scored only 3 points the rest of the way, all on foul shots by Corey Fisher with 31.7 seconds left. In that stretch, the Patriots had scored eight consecutive points to go ahead - a 3-point jumper by Isaiah Tate, a conventional 3-point play by Ryan Pearson off a feed from Hancock, and Morrison's put-back dunk with under a minute to go. Meanwhile, Villanova's Antonio Penamissed two foul shots and Mouphtaou Yarou missed the front end of a one-and-one. After Fisher's foul shots and the 3-pointer by Hancock (18 points) made it 59-57 for George Mason, the Wildcats had two chances to go ahead, but could not convert. Maalik Wayns missed a driving layup,and the rebound came to Pearson sitting on the floor in the middle of the lane. Villanova tied him up for a jump ball and kept possession with 9.1 seconds left. But Corey Stokes (14 points), whose erratic 4-for-15 shooting included two air balls, badlymissed a jumper off the backboard, and Morrison (11 points, 10 rebounds) broke ahead of the field for his second dunk. Fisher finished with 20 points for Villanova. via http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/sports/ncaabasketball/19georgemason.xml