George Mason eliminates James Madison in quarterfinals

Mike Morrison averaged 4 blocked shots in high school in Florida. He's averaging less than half a block as a college freshman at George Mason.

"In high schools, blocks came a lot easier," he said. "Now they're difficult."

Didn't seem that way last night. In a game against James Madison in which baskets were at a premium, the long-armed, 6-9 reserve forward tilted things Mason's way with his defense.

Morrison blocked four shots - two in a sequence when the game was teetering. The Patriots used that and seven points from Cam Long in the final three minutes to pull away for a 61-53 victory in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament quarterfinals at the Coliseum.

Second-seeded Mason (21-9) will meet the winner of last night's final game between Northeastern and Towson in today's semifinals at 5:30 p.m.

Morrison averages 9.1 minutes. Filling in for foul-prone Darryl Monroe, he played 23 minutes and had six points and eight rebounds.

But his blocks are what kept Mason ahead. With the Patriots up 45-43 with 9½ minutes left, Morrison rejected Juwann James' shot. That set up a fast break that resulted in two free throws by John Vaughan.

James tried again on the next possession. Morrison swatted that away, too. He came down with the rebound, stood there with the ball, got too animated and was slapped with a technical foul.

"Mike Morrison came in and gave us a huge, huge lift," George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said. "In case you didn't notice, he's a very emotional young man. He learned a valuable lesson tonight."

Morrison came in with 12 blocked shots for the season.

"Every one of those blocks was on a makeable layup," Larranaga said. "So he probably wiped out at least three or four layups.

"One of the things you have to realize is we teach players to play percentage defense. Early in the year, we were really on Mike about not jumping too much, not going for shot fakes, not letting his man catch the ball easily. He really had to adjust to our style of defense."

Morrison said he was just trying to keep the ball away from James, Madison's leading scorer. James was 0 for 8 from the field and scored one point.

"He's one of the best players in the conference," Morrison said. "I just wanted to play as hard as I could and really not let him touch the ball. That didn't work out for me. I got a few blocks."

JMU coach Matt Brady called the blocks "a kick in the stomach."

"Some of those baskets you think, "Geez, you've got inside position, you're going to the rim, you're going to get a basket out of it,'" Brady said. "Next thing you know, it's their ball."

Still, the seventh-seeded Dukes (19-14) hung around behind Pierre Curtis (16 points) and Devon Moore (13). They were down 51-50 when Long went to work. He banked in a jumper, then followed that with a 3-pointer with 1:48 left that gave Mason some separation.

"A couple of times in the past few games, we ran that same play," said Long, who had 12 points. "Coach L had given me a video to look at to study my shot. The one thing I noticed, coming off that screen, is I'm capable of knocking down that shot."

JAMES MADISON (19-14)

3-point goals - JMU (4-21): Curtis 2-3, Semenov 1-3, Swanston 1-4, Moore 0-1, Parker 0-2, Wells 0-8. GMU (2-13): Long 2-5, Cornelius 0-2, Smith 0-3, Vaughan 0-3.

Turnovers - JMU (11): Thornton 3, Wells 2, Moore 2, James 2, Curtis, Semenov. GMU (12): Monroe 5, Pearson 2, Birdsong 2, Cornelius 2, Tate.

Blocked shots - JMU (1): Semenov. GMU (8): Morrison 4, Birdsong 3, Smith.

Steals - JMU (5): Swanston 2, Curtis 2, Thornton. GMU (3): Smith 2, Long.

A - N/A.