Nov. 25, 2003

Recap| Box Score| Notes| Photo Gallery

Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening comments
"They played us tough, especially when they went to zone on us. We did a great job against it. We came back and had momentum going into halftime. It was a tough time for us because we don't have the experience in coming back in a lot of games. We had to dig down and we did a good job. I'm real impressed with our players. Jamar Smith had 13 rebounds and he's [playing] as a senior even though he's only been here two years. We really need that."

"John Gilchrist started playing better as the game went on. I thought he was really a force strength-wise for us in the second half in the backcourt. I'm starting to like these guys. They compete like that in practice, but sometimes it's hard to start games when you haven't been through some tough games."

On responding to George Mason's charge:
"I thought in the first half we had bad body language. In the second half...after we got the lead back, I just felt we were going to win the game. I've been wrong before, but I could see the confidence come back and I think they did, too. Players look at each other. They need each other and that's where Jamar Smith was really big tonight because they saw what he was doing out there."

On the play of John Gilchrist:
"I told him...'You're every bit that good. You were the best player in the last ten minutes of the game.' That's what he can be. John really cares. It has to be tough following Steve Blake. Steve was a certain type of player, but I want John to be himself."

Maryland Forward Jamar Smith
"We had two good games to start. We have to keep it going. You have to be ready, because other teams are going to come after us since we have "Maryland" on our shirts."

"The whole team is athletic. We can play defense. Coach [Williams] always tells us as long as we're out there with energy and playing hard, we're going to play well defensively."

Maryland Forward Nik Caner-Medley
"They played hard. They played well. I think one of the biggest steps we took forward today was having to grind out a win. It doesn't matter who we're playing. A win is a win and I think this team showed a lot of heart tonight."

Maryland Guard D.J. Strawberry
"In the first half, I wasn't playing with that much energy. Coach got on me some and told me I needed to play with energy every time I get on the floor. In the second half, I just had to bring everything I had."

I wasn't surprised coming into the game. All the coaches told us they could shoot the ball and they really played four guards making them hard to match up with. We went out and played hard. It was a good win."

George Mason Head Coach Jim Larranaga
On his team's overall performance:
"I told the team afterwards that we have new guys that are playing a lot of minutes. In particular, our backcourt of Terry Reynolds and Lamar Butler didn't play at all last year. We played well at times, but we should play much better than we did tonight on both ends of the floor, and we're going to need to because we have a very tough non-conference schedule and a tough conference schedule to face."

On the Patriots' 19 turnovers:
"I said before the game that you would be able to tell who's controlling the game by who forces the turnovers. I thought we created our own mistakes. We drove it in there a little out of control too early in the possessions and didn't share the ball quickly enough coming down the floor."

On playing a competitive game:
"Maryland missed some shots against the zone. We're not a zone team, but we had to go to the 2-3 zone because we weren't getting back in our man-to-man [defense]. The end result was that we went to zone and they missed some shots and that helped us get back in the game. They were still able to keep pounding it inside on the offensive boards. They didn't hurt us from the perimeter in our zone, but they did get it to the glass. Most importantly was the turnovers that led to fast break lay-ups where we didn't get any defense back."

George Mason Forward Mark Davis

On the half-court offense:
"I wasn't feeling the offense, but what can I say, Coach [Larranaga] called the plays. We tried to run them, but we couldn't execute."

On the team's turnovers:
"Turnovers were a key factor in this game. We tried to limit our turnovers in practice, however in the game we turned the ball over which led to east fast-break layups for Maryland.

On the crowd:
"I don't believe it affected us that much. Maryland has a very big crowd. It really didn't take us out of the game, but they supported Maryland the way they were supposed to.

George Mason Center Jai Lewis:
On the low-post battle:
"It was a tough battle when the rebounds came off, they pushed me in the back a little bit. That's part of ACC basketball. You definitely have to get tough as you move up the ranks. We just play hard when we come here."