George Mason University capitalized on an early lead to beat No. 2 UNC Wilmington 53-41 tonight in the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association's men's basketball championship.

Though the No. 3 Patriots lost its previous two contests against the Seahawks, GMU employed a non-zone defense tonight and switched up several defensive man-on-man assignments to effectively shut down two of Wilmington's key shooters - Chad Tomko and Vladimir Kuljanin - and keep the Seahawks to only 28.1 percent shooting for the night.

George Mason began the second half up 31-25 by holding on to its early lead, but mainly due to shoddy shooting and turnovers by both teams. Wilmington's T. J. Carter broke the two-minute scoreless streak with a three pointer to bring the Seahawks within three but the Patriots slowly began building points, eventually racking up a nine-point lead with less than eight minutes to go in the game.

At 1:57, after a lengthy series of missed baskets, Wilmington's Carter landed a two-pointer to bring the Seahawks within six, but it wasn't enough to rally his teammates. George Mason began playing with time management and a series of careless Wilmington fouls send the Patriots to the line enough to build their game winning 12-point lead at the buzzer.

"We were able to control the game with our defense," said GMU head coach Jim Larranaga. "Some of the things that transpired in our first couple of games with Wilmington had a great impact on our decisions that we made today. They really hurt us from the three and they hurt us with the low block so we tried to take away as many three point opportunities as we could and as many low post feeds as we could."

The low post responsibilities were given to GMU's 6-7 forward Chris Flemming, who helped effectively hold the 6-10 Kuljanin to an uncharacteristically low 10 points.

"Chris Flemming is my newest hero," said Larranaga.

GMU's Louis Birdsong also had a standout game making 5 of 7 baskets for 10 points. Folarin Campbell had a team high 15 points.

Though GMU junior guard Dre Smith pulled down eight points shooting 100 percent, he left the game late in the first half with complaints about his left knee. He sat out the rest of the half, but Larranaga said he is questionable for tomorrow's championship game against No. 5 William & Mary at 7 p.m.

CAA Tournament Reading Room

w Hoopin' at the CAA 2008 CAA Basketball Tournament: Our RBlog takes you on a journey through the tournament.
w First round action: Northeastern, Delaware, William & Mary and Towson capture wins on day one.
w VCU takes on Towson: Highlights of Saturday's first quarterfinal matchup.
w Quarterfinal action: William & Mary, UNC Wilmington and George Mason advance.
w CAA shocker: William & Mary beats No. 1 VCU.