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Two freshmen, Maalik Wayns and Isaiah Armwood, hit 3-pointers in the last two possessions to bring Villanova back from a late five-point deficit with 1:42 to play. The basket was Armwood's first of his career, and it came after he was forced into action thanks to severe foul trouble for Villanova's frontcourt.

The fouls were the main thing that made this game a strange one.

Those free-throw rates are borderline absurd. The two teams combined for 54 fouls committed. Nine players accumulated at least four fouls, including the four Villanova Wildcats who fouled out. Among those four were Antonio Pena, Taylor King and Maurice Sutton or, in other words, all the height in Villanova's rotation since freshman Mouphtaou Yarou was sent back to Philly with a viral infection.

Perhaps the strangest aspect of this foul fest is that George Mason was just the 262nd-most proficient team at getting to the line in the nation last season. Of Patriots returners, Ryan Pearson and Mike Morrison were the best at getting to the line, and yet they combined for just four of the 37 free-throw attempts for Mason. The Patriots made 27, or 73 percent of those. Villanova had 39 attempts, making just 23, or 59 percent.

Because of the way the game was officiated, foul shooting played a major role down the stretch. At one point, Villanova missed four of five free throws in the game's final minutes, but it was George Mason that saw its free-throw shooting betray it in the last possessions of the game. The Patriots went 4-for-8 from the line in the game's final two minutes to keep Nova alive.

The second thing that sticks out in that box above is the rebounding. Villanova had 19 offensive rebounds, 11 more than George Mason, but it was 6-foot-1 Corey Fisher who led the Cats with five. Since Jay Wright likes to play small, the guards must crash the glass, and Fisher's production is a positive step in the right direction. His aggressiveness on the floor also translated into 18 free-throw attempts, of which the junior made 14.

King, the transfer from Duke, had four offensive rebounds of his own, and the 11-offensive rebound difference allowed Villanova to make up for the 17 turnovers it committed to GMU's 14. The first half was especially troubling to Wright as he saw his team full of veteran guards commit 11 in the opening 20 minutes. Reynolds had a nightmare first half. He ended the game with eight turnovers but was able to score 18 points after the poor start.

While the win was the key for Villanova on Thursday, my takeaway from this game is that Villanova really misses what Dante Cunningham and Dwayne Anderson brought last season. Those two players -- and departed Shane Clark as well -- were the Cats who were most adept offensively on the interior.

Cunningham hit 52.7 percent of his 463 2-point attempts in Villanova's Final Four season, a total more than twice as many as anyone else on the team. Anderson hit 55.7 percent of his 132 attempts, and Clark made 52.7 percent of his 112 attempts. Of the rest of last year's team, only Reggie Redding made at least half of his 2-pointers last season, and he won't be back until the end of first semester. Therefore, it wasn't a great surprise that Villanova made just 39.3 percent of its 2-pointers against George Mason.

On the defensive end, the problem is just as acute. Cunningham was the team's best interior defender last season, and without him, the Wildcats did nothing but hack George Mason around the basket. Pena is notoriously foul-prone, and Sutton is very inexperienced, but foul-outs should be a rarity for King. Wright would prefer not to have to use King against opposing interior players, which means Pena needs to stay on the floor, and the 6-foot-9, 240-pound Yarou best get better quickly.

Villanova's next opponent is Dayton on Friday. The Flyers are not a team that forces its way to the line, but their star, 6-8 Chris Wright, does draw fouls. Dayton is terrific at defending the rim, finishing third in the Atlantic 10 in 2-point defense last season. To win on Friday and consistently throughout the season, Villanova has to stay disciplined to keep its frontcourt on the floor, or the poor 2-point shooting and the excessive fouling is likely to be a problem that crops up periodically.