The University of Toledo men's basketball team began a difficult December schedule with an 86-77 loss to George Mason on Saturday night at Savage Arena.

The Rockets (3-4) returned home for their first home game since a Nov. 11 come-from-behind win over Louisiana and dropped their fourth game in a row after a 3-0 start to the season.

Dante Maddox, Jr., scored 25 points to lead Toledo, while Ra'Heim Moss chipped in with 13 points and Javan Simmons added 11 points.

“I'm disappointed with our loss against an Atlantic 10 opponent and a really talented team,” Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk said. “I thought the offense in the second half was not good. We stopped moving the ball and basketball is a game of spurts and when they are on a run we have to stop their run by buckling down and getting a good shot and not turning the ball over.”

Amari Kelly led George Mason (7-1) with 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Ronald Polite III and Darius Maddox added 14 points each.

Toledo briefly took a one-point, second-half lead at 46-45 with 16:49 left after Moss made a driving layup and then again at 48-47 after another layup by Moss, but George Mason led for the rest of the second half and worked out to a 12-point advantage with 9:47 left when Baraka Okojie made two free throws for a 66-54 lead.

Toledo cut the lead to five points at 76-71 when Moss made 1-of-2 from the free throw line, but could not get any closer as Kelly followed with a layup to quickly stretch the edge back to seven points.

“We were able to take the lead, but I think it's just a discipline thing making sure that when we work ourselves back in the game that as fast as we work our way back, we don't do things to take ourselves out of the game again,” Dante Maddox said. “That's the biggest thing. We have to trust what our coaches are saying and just execute.”

George Mason led by as many as nine points in the first half when Kelly hit a 3-pointer with 1:44 left to give the Patriots a 40-31 lead. Toledo scored the final four points before the break to cut the halftime lead to 40-35.

Maddox scored 12 points to pace Toledo in a first half that featured six ties and seven lead changes. The Patriots led most of the half behind 12 points from Polite and eight from Kelly.

Kowalczyk adjusted his starting lineup, giving junior guard Tyler Cochran and freshman forward Grgur Brcic their first starts of the season. Freshman point guard Sonny Wilson and junior forward Ben Wight came off the bench for the first time this season.

“Sonny's been banged up a little bit and I think Tyler Cochran has clearly been one of our best players,” Kowalczyk said. “I was just trying to give us a spark. I thought Keyshawn Hall was their best player coming in and I thought the best player to guard him was Tyler Cochran and he did a good job guarding tonight and frustrated him. So it wasn't [Hall] that hurt us, but it was [Kelly] and not staying in front of the dribble.”

Since last playing at home, Toledo picked up a road win at Wright State before experiencing its first adversity of the young season. The Rockets traveled to Henderson, Nev., for the Ball Dawgz Classic and lost three straight games in four days over the Thanksgiving holiday week.

Against three very challenging opponents — New Mexico, UC-Irvine, and Indiana State — Toledo could not break through in competitive games.

The loss to George Mason adds to a difficult stretch for Toledo. It comes at an important time, as well, opening up a December slate loaded with good mid-major competition and culminating with a Dec. 23 trip to face the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Rockets travel to Oakland for a Wednesday game before returning to Toledo for three straight against Northern Iowa, Marshall, and Vermont. Then they close the month in Morgantown, W. Va.

“We’re a team that’s playing 10 guys — five juniors and five freshmen,” Kowalczyk said. “I said from the beginning we’re a talented team but we are going to have some growing pains. Right now we are in one of those pains. I like to think we’ll figure it out sooner rather than later. We just need to stick to the gameplan a little bit better instead of going off-script.”

First Published December 3, 2023, 2:49 a.m.