Photo Credit: Nancy Kiner
By: Zach Gindi-Chiafullo
Women’s basketball fell to the George Mason Patriots, 87-55, Tuesday night in their Atlantic-10 opener. The Revolutionaries were outplayed by George Mason’s heavy aggressiveness and ability to take advantage of any mistake they made as the Patriots stayed atop the Atlantic 10.
Here is how it all panned out:
The Revolutionaries were gearing up for their first conference matchup of the season, in which they would be playing a tough home game against a 7-1 George Mason team featuring some of the top talent in the A-10. Despite their struggle to get consistent production on offense, GW was looking to extend their perfect record at home this season and their 3-game winning streak, and improve to a 6-2 record. A lot was on the line for the Revolutionaries at the Charles E. Smith Center on a cold December night.
However, at the start of the first quarter, their struggles surfaced.
The Revolutionaries produced inefficient ball handling on offense, which led to several turnovers and George Mason having early dominance. They took advantage of almost every mishap GW committed like mind readers and emerged aggressively on their end of the ball at any given chance, both on offense and defense.
George Mason outscored the Revolutionaries 20-10 in the first quarter. Of the 10 points that GW scored, Mariona Planes-Fortuny racked up half of them. Ta’Viyanna Habib took command of the scoreboard with 8 points in the first quarter for George Mason.
It did not look any better for GW in the 2nd quarter.
They continued to make mistakes on defense, and they did not attain any points other than through fouls for the first half of the quarter, while George Mason just continued to dominate and rack up points by capitalizing on defensive rebounds. For those fouls, Gabby Reynolds scored on both of her free throws, and Makayla Andrews made one of two shots.
It wasn’t until 5:02 in the 2nd quarter that Morgan Matthews would deliver the Revolutionaries’ first non-foul scoring points of the quarter, with an amazing three-point step-back shot. Makayla Andrews mentioned that “this was her [Matthews] time to get in” in the press conference, and that she has been practicing on her shots. Matthews went 2-3 on threes for the entire game. Onward from her three-point shot, there was a sudden spark of life to the team. Makayla Andrews got a few great shots in and there was more control and aggressiveness on their defensive side of the ball.
In addition to Andrews, the rest of the offense stepped up as well. With that, GW seemed to be getting into a groove late in the 2nd quarter. They were able to figure out the offensive schemes of George Mason and stop them, and were able to get things going with scoring, going on a 9-0 run at one point to end the quarter. On this run, Andrews stated that “Morgan [Matthews] came out with a spark hitting those threes, and we locked in more defensively” (Andrews). This led to a score of 41-29 George Mason at the half, with GW now having a glimmer of hope to possibly come back.
The momentum continued as they returned from the half, with much better ball control and resilience from the Revolutionaries early into the third quarter. However, that didn’t stop George Mason from showing equal toughness making the court look like a pinball game as both teams chased and fought for the ball.
At one point though, GW’s toughness faded, and George Mason once again showed their dominance like they did in the first quarter, taking a 20-point lead with 5:52 to go in the third. After another lull on offense for the Revolutionaries, a timeout was taken at 4:48 to evaluate what would have caused the crumble of the momentum the team had going into the beginning of the quarter. It didn’t matter though as there came an offensive surge and electric effort by George Mason late in the third quarter, highlighted by a dagger-like three-point shot by Ta’Viyanna Habib and another great three by Jada Brown with 3:00 to go. Then, the Revolutionaries showed a bright spot with a three-point jumper by Makayla Andrews, showcasing her “scoring mentality” as noted by head coach Caroline McComb, and a steal which led to a layup by Morgan Matthews with 1:11 to go in the third, but Brown came to play once again with a beautiful 3 point shot with 0:52 to go.
This showed that the offensive play calling by GW had its moments, but remained inconsistent throughout the quarter and the game. The score was 65-42 at the end of the third with George Mason outsourcing the Revolutionaries 24-13 in the quarter.
GW would need some life in the fourth quarter to pull off a miracle, but it was hard to get any momentum going again as George Mason just continued their aggressiveness, turnover after turnover, and point after point.
On the bright side, Makayla Andrews continued to carry the effort and score for her team on her back with a couple of great shots in the first half of the quarter.
With 6:45 to go, GW was once again showing some grit, but at that point, they were down by 29. George Mason showed very smooth playing techniques that were too tough for GW to handle.
In the end, The George Mason Patriots blew out the Revolutionaries 87-55 to hand them their first loss at home this season and their largest conference loss at home since 2011. Not the ideal outcome of the first conference game of the season for the Buff and Blue.
For the Patriots, they improve their record to 8-1 overall, sitting atop the A-10, and roll with momentum as they take on Georgetown next.
Head coach Vannessa Blair-Lewis mentioned the team “came ready to compete in the A-10”, and this game showed just that.
One point of motivation Blair-Lewis had was that GW was the only team outrebounding George Mason, and to get over that hump and outplay them must have been a great feeling.
Sitting beside the head coach at the press conference were players Zahirah Walton and the leading scorer Ta’Viyanna Habib for George Mason, having 20 points on the night. She mentioned that coach Blair-Lewis had a bit of a pep-talk after Maryland handed them their first loss. That talk may have seemed to work as they displayed a dominant effort against a good Revolutionaries team.
For the Revolutionaries, McComb acknowledged that they “were struggling to get things going on offense”, and that they needed to “practice taking care of the ball” amidst all the committed turnovers.
GW had 21 turnovers on the night, while George Mason only had 9. McComb hopes for the team to “try and figure it out” as they fall to 5-3 and the conference matchups come rolling in.
For scoring, Makayla Andrews led with 23 points, and her effort and grit were of high praise to her team. McComb mentioned that she would like to get things going with her players like that and they have that potential. For the duration of the game, Andrews was “poised like a leader.” Props were also given to Morgan Matthews, who gave life to the team at the end of the second quarter and amassed 10 points off the bench.
The Revolutionaries look to bounce back as they take on a weaker opponent in Coppin State in their next matchup at home next Tuesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.
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