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No. 10 St. Louis holds off pesky George Mason in OT

Feb 20, 2014 - 5:22 AM Fairfax, VA (SportsNetwork.com) - Jordair Jett scored 25 points to help No. 10 Saint Louis hang on to win, 89-85, in overtime over George Mason and extend their school-best winning streak to 18 games.

With George Mason trailing 72-71, Bryon Allen took the ball off the inbounds and drove in, but threw up a bad shot. Jalen Jenkins grabbed the ball and was fouled by Dwayne Evans on his put-back attempt. Jenkins went to the line for two and drained both shots to give the Patriots a one-point lead with five seconds left.

Jett inbounded the ball and got the ball right back. He raced down the court and got fouled on his layup attempt with 0.9 seconds left. Jett missed the first shot, but made the second to send the game into overtime.

Saint Louis (24-2, 11-0 A-10) took control in overtime after Rob Loe knocked down back-to-back triples and Jett scored four points to give the Billikens a four-point lead with less than two minutes left.

Mike McCall Jr. supplied 16 points and seven rebounds for the Billikens. Jake Barnett had 14, while Evans and Loe both scored 13 apiece as they stayed undefeated on the road and in league play.

"We've had fortunate breaks and they've not had fortunate breaks," Saint Louis coach Jim Crews said. "But we played well and really hung in there and made one or two plays more than them."

Sherrod Wright had a career-high 34 points and Jenkins chipped in 16 points with eight boards for the Patriots (9-17, 2-10), who have dropped two straight.

"I thought we did everything we could to win that game," George Mason coach Paul Hewitt said. "We just didn't make enough plays."

The two schools met earlier in the month as Loe hit a late three to send the game into overtime. He tallied 10 points in the extra session as the Billikens won 87-81 on Feb. 1.

George Mason extended its lead to 48-41 early in the second half on an 8-1 run that contained seven points from Wright, but the Billikens fought back to take a 56-55 lead on Jett's jumper with just under eight minutes left.

Late in regulation, Jett went up for a jumper and Jenkins swatted the ball away. Allen grabbed the loose ball and hit Wright in stride for the layup to tie the game. After both teams missed a shot, Loe sank a triple to make it 72-69 with 49 seconds.

Wright drained a tough fadeaway jumper to get the Patriots within one with 35 seconds to go before Jenkins nailed two free throws and Jett tied the game with less than a second to go.

In overtime, Jenkins' jumper with 17 seconds left cut Saint Louis' lead to three. Tanner Lancona split a pair of free throws and Wright went down to make a layup to make it 87-85 with six seconds.

McCall Jr. was fouled a second left and made both free throws to ice the game.

Saint Louis sank three straight triples courtesy of McCall Jr. and Barnett early on to give them a 9-2 edge, but Allen's three knotted the game at 21 with under eight to go in the opening frame.

Marko Gujancic's 3 in the midst of a 10-2 run put the Patriots back in front with over two minutes to go, but Barnett hit a 3 with 42 seconds to go to knot the game at 32.

Mike Crawford lobbed the ball in off the inbounds. Allen stole the ball off an inbounds and pulled up to nail a three with a second to go to give George Mason a 35-32 lead heading into the break.

Game Notes

McCall Jr. scored 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting from beyond in the first half ... Saint Louis has won 18 of its last 19 road games dating back to last season ... The Billikens' past three wins have been decided by a total of eight points ... The Patriots have dropped six straight at home for the first time since the 1994-95 season.