The lone positive from the contest was the play of Wright—the Virginia native finished with a double-double in his return to his home state. The Crimson had just one double-double all of last season.

“Keith was pretty extraordinary,” Webster said. “He was a beast in the paint. Their big man who was supposed to be really good couldn’t stop Keith. He really showed what he was capable of doing.”

Rivard—expected to be the team’s highest-scoring freshman—struggled mightily in his collegiate debut, going 0-11 from the field, including 0-7 from downtown. Curry (2-10), and Webster (3-12) did not fare much better in the loss.

Hancock scored a team-high 14 points for the Patriots, while Pearson added 13 and Cornelius had 11. McNally and Webster each scored seven for Harvard.

Despite out-rebounding the Patriots, 41-34, the Crimson—which clearly missed injured forward Kyle Casey inside—was outscored, 40-20, in the paint. The team turned the ball over 24 times, leading to 24 George Mason points.

“We’ve just got to play basketball like we’re used to playing,” Wright said. “We’re a better team than we showed yesterday. We just try to move on…we’ll take care of some of that stuff in practice, but I’m still confident in our guys.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.