Dec. 4, 2005

The George Mason men's basketball team, fresh off a 30-point win at Georgia State, will play a bit closer to home on Monday night as Mason will take on American University at the MCI Center as part of the BB&T Classic. The one-day, six-team event has the Patriots facing off with the Eagles at 6:30 p.m., after Navy takes on Howard and before Maryland plays George Washington.

The Patriots have won 11 straight against American and Mason head coach Jim Larranaga is 10-0 against the Eagles since taking over as head coach of the Patriots eight-plus years ago. Mason has won two straight and is 3-2 on the year while American is still searching for its first win after an 0-5 start to the year.

Mason has been led this season by Tony Skinn, who is averaging 15.0 points per game. Skinn had 11 points, six rebounds and seven assists against Georgia State. Lamar Butler and Jai Lewis are tied for second on the team in scoring with 13.2 points per game. Butler had 21 against Georgia State while Lewis is averaging a double-double, with 10.2 rebounds per game.

Mason has seven players playing significant minutes. Aside from the three aforementioned seniors, starters Will Thomas and Folarin Campbell are averaging 31.2 and 29.4 minutes per game, respectively. Junior Gabe Norwood is averaging 19.8 minutes off the bench while freshman Sammy Hernandez is averaging 14.2 minutes per game. Hernandez is the top bench scorer with 4.4 points per game and 4.4 rebounds per game.

American's leading scorer, Andre Ingram, is averaging just 12.0 points per game, while Brayden Billbe is at 11.2 points per game and Arvydas Eitutavicius is at 11.0 points per game. Billbe is also American's leading rebounder with 6.0 rebounds per game.

American is coached by Jeff Jones. Jones played at the University of Virginia while Larranaga was an assistant coach.