Luke Hancock had 15 points and eight rebounds as George Mason took advantage of slow starts to both halves by George Washington, pulling away to win their third straight, 60-46, on Wednesday night.
After failing to capitalize on the Colonials' slow first-half start, the Patriots (5-2) went on a 9-0 run to open the second and extended its lead to 58-38 with 2:21 to play to remain unbeaten at home.
The win was George Mason's first over George Washington since 1987 and just its second in 12 meetings between the schools, which are less than 20 miles across the Virginia and Washington, D.C., border from each other.
Tony Taylor had 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting to pace the Colonials (2-4), which dropped their third straight.
George Washington had scoreless droughts of 4:59 to open the first half and 5:14 to open the second half, and shot just 31.1 percent from the field (19 of 61) for the game, the third straight opponent George Mason has held to less than 38 percent.
Cam Long had 14 points and Mike Morrison added 12 and eight rebounds for the Patriots, who scored the game's first seven points but took just a 28-26 lead into halftime even after the Colonials missed their first 10 shots and 15 of their first 16 to open the game.
The teams combined to miss 47 of 64 shots in the first half.
