Photo credit: Greg Fiume
By Liam O’Murchu (@Liam_0__)
Women’s basketball continued their skid with a 57-41 loss to George Mason on Wednesday afternoon in their Field Trip game.
The Revolutionaries (8-11, 1-6 A10) once again struggled offensively, shooting an abysmal 16-for-64 from the field and 3-for-24 from three point range. The Patriots (15-3, 6-1 A10) also sputtered with the ball in their hands, scoring their second-fewest points of the season despite a monster 23-point, 16-rebound performance from sophomore forward Zahirah Walton.
“We had a great defensive effort today.” GW head coach Caroline McCombs said. “We’re proud of that defensive effort. And we’ve just been struggling to put the ball in the basket.”
GW started off relatively strong, trailing only 8-6 at the first media timeout. The Revs were active on the offensive boards but struggled to take advantage of those second chances, a trend that would continue for the rest of the game. The Revs battled to a 14-14 stalemate at the end of the first quarter behind seven points from graduate guard Nya Lok and 6-for-18 shooting overall.
Both teams then forgot how to play offense, with neither of them hitting a shot from the field for the first six minutes of the quarter. This poor shooting was compounded by carelessness with the ball. After combining to shoot 34.4% in the first quarter, the teams shot a whooping 17.2% from the floor in the second quarter and had only one three pointer in 12 attempts.
Through 18 games against Division One opponents, the Revolutionaries are averaging just 12.2 points in the second quarter. Meanwhile, the Revs are 5-1 when leading or tied at halftime, and are 2-10 when trailing at halftime. Heading into halftime George Mason led 26-21.
Lok carried the offensive load for much of the day and hit a three pointer to make it a one possession game in the first moments of the third quarter. However she picked up her third foul with 8:14 left in the quarter and was forced to sit for a large portion of the quarter as the Patriots took advantage by ripping off a 9-1 run to grab a 37-27 lead at the media timeout. By the end of the quarter, GMU had pushed the lead to 43-30 and the Revs looked on their way to their 14th ever loss to the Patriots.
The final quarter was much of the same for GW, as they missed layups and open threes alike while Mason did enough to win by a comfortable margin.
For the fourth time in conference play, sophomore guard Nya Robertson came off the bench. Postgame McCombs said that Robertson was sick and hadn’t been in practice the last few days. Nevertheless, the preseason All-A10 Second Teamer finished with just five points. This was the first time in her collegiate career she scored fewer than 10 points in consecutive games against D1 opponents. The Revs move to 0-4 this season against D1 teams when she fails to hit double digits.
Although it’s easy to dwell on the negatives (allowing 20 points off 18 turnovers, shooting 3-for-24 from beyond the arc, and getting outrebounded 49-45, not to mention losing by 16), the defense was a bright spot. The Revs held the Patriots 20 points below their scoring average, 13% below their average from the field, and 18.5% below their average from three point range. But holding a prolific scoring team like Mason to such few points only compounds the frustrations offensively.
“To keep them 20 points below their average is really good.” McCombs said. “And the field goal percentages are really good. We can score 58 points if we hold them to 57, right?”
For George Mason, it was a coming out party of sorts for Zahirah Walton, who imposed her will down low and sparkled from the charity stripe. 10 of her 23 points came at the line, where she did not miss a shot. That combined with 16 rebounds (nine of which were on the offensive end) and two blocks made it one of the best performances of her young career.
“In my mind, I’m thinking ‘we need to go find a Walton.’” McCombs said. “So we will be doing that, because she’s a tough matchup and she’s a great player. She’s gonna be a good player in this league and we look forward to battling with her over the next couple of years.”
GW will look to turn it around on Saturday afternoon against a Fordham team on a five game losing streak in the Bronx. That game tips off at 2 PM and can be streamed on ESPN+.
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