George Mason never led as Virginia Commonwealth shot a whopping 47 free throws on their way to an 89-77 win in the regular season finale for the two CAA teams.
With the win, Virginia Commonwealth secured the No. 2 seed in next week's CAA Tournament and will play the winner of the 7-10 matchup between Northeastern and William & Mary in Saturday's quarterfinal. George Mason fell to the No. 3 seed and will play the winner of of the 6-11 matchup between Georgia State and Hofstra on Saturday.
VCU held a 43-27 lead at halftime and led by as much as 51-31 with 15 minutes to play, but the Rams allowed George Mason to creep back within single digits on several occasions. The Patriots got as close as 52-44 with 10:15 left to go, but Bradford Burgess knocked down a three-pointer to goose the lead back to 11. From there, the margin largely fluctuated between 10 and 15 points for most of the rest of the evening.
Burgess led all scorers with 31 points for VCU, while Ryan Pearson recorded 24 points and nine rebounds before fouling out.