BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Down 14 points with under three minutes to play, the 13th seed Saint Joseph's men's basketball team rallied to make it a three-point game with under a minute to go. Unfortunately for the Hawks, 12th seed George Mason was able to hold off the their fight to earn a 77-70 victory in the First Round of the Atlantic 10 Championship at the Barclays Center.

How It Happened
• Trailing 66-52 with less than three minutes remaining, Saint Joseph's went on a 14-3 run over the next two minutes as a putback layup by Toliver Freeman closed the gap to 69-66.
 • George Mason scored four straight at the foul line to push its lead to 73-66, but the Hawks answered back with layups from Freeman and Anthony Longpré to get within a possession, 73-70, with :10.8 remaining.
 • The Patriots would seal the game from the foul line though as they went 4-for-4 to close out the contest
 • In the first half, a jumper by Ryan Daly gave the Hawks their first lead, 9-8, but Mason responded with a 5-0 run to take a 13-9 edge.
 • Falling behind by six, 19-13, the Hawks scored seven of the next nine points as a layup by Daly brought his team to within one, 21-20.
 • George Mason responded with a quick 4-0 run, but Myles Douglas connected on a three-pointer to make it 25-23 with 4:10 to go in the opening half.
 • The Patriots closed out the opening period on a 13-4 run as they built a 38-27 lead at halftime.
 • Falling behind 44-32 in the second half, a three-pointer by Freeman at 17:16 sparked a 14-3 run for the Hawks as a pair of free throws by Rahmir Moore made it a one-point game, 47-46, at 11:57.
 • George Mason scored the next seven points and opened a 66-52 advantage with 2:52 to go on a dunk by AJ Wilson.

Inside The Boxscore
• Daly finished with a game-high 28 points to go with five rebounds and three assists.
• Daly capped the year with 619 points, the eighth most in a single-season in SJU history, while his 128 assists tied for 29th most alongside Luke Griffin (1977-78).
• Daly became just the 14th Hawk since 1941-42 to average 20 or more points per game, with his 20.6 points per game average the highest by a Hawk since Jameer Nelson's 20.6 ppg in 2003-04.
• Freeman scored a career-best 18 points, surpassing his previous mark of 16 at home against Davidson this season, and grabbed a team-best seven rebounds.
• Cameron Brown was the third Hawk in double figure as he added 10 points and three assists.
• Saint Joseph's shot 41.3 percent (26-of-63), 30.3 percent from behind the arc (10-of-33) and 57.1 percent from the foul line (8-of-14).
• George Mason connected on 48.3 percent from the field (28-of-60), 21.3 percent from three-point range (3-of-14) and  57.1 percent from the foul line (16-of-28).
• Wilson led three Patriots in double figures with 24 points.

Postgame Quotes
"I'm very proud of our team. That game was a real testament to the season that we had. The motto of the school is 'The Hawk Will Never Die' and I believe this team embraced that spirit for the entire season," said SJU Head Coach Billy Lange. "This group tried to improve everyday. I felt coming into the tournament that there were 14 teams in the tournament. You take us out, now there's 13. I thought three were playing at a level clearly better than the other 10, and I thought we were playing as well as the other 10."

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