George Mason 63, Princeton 60

After falling behind early to Cornell in its season-opening loss, host George Mason made sure to make no such mistakes against Princeton.

The Patriots went wire-to-wire against the Tigers, jumping out to a 15-point first half lead and riding that to a 63-60 win.

Guard Patrick Holloway led the way for George Mason (1-1) for the second straight game, and the junior guard looks primed for a big year. After averaging 8.7 points per game, his 19 points after dropping 22 against Cornell puts him at 20.5 after two contests. Guard Marquise Moore’s 11 points made him the only other Mason player in double figures.

George Mason outshot Princeton 43.6 percent (24-of-55) to 33.9 percent (19-56), and also had a 43-34 advantage in the rebounding column.

Trailing 32-19 at the break, Princeton scored the first six points of the second half to cut George Mason’s lead down to seven.

The Patriots had it back up to 11 before the Tigers made their strongest push yet. A 3-pointer from guard Clay Wilson and five straight points from forward Hans Brase had it down to a three-point game with 13 minutes to play before it got stretched back out to a nine-point gap, which is where it was with 2:29 remaining.

Princeton (1-1) made one final push, getting going on a 9-3 run to make it 62-59 George Mason with 22 seconds remaining after GMU forward Jalen Jenkins missed the second of two free throws, but forward Steven Cook’s 3-pointer with six seconds left was no good.

Brase paced the Tigers with 17 points and 14 rebounds, going six of 12 from the floor and three of seven on 3-pointers.