FAIRFAX- For the first time in program history, George Mason (12-10, 4-5) swept the season series from George Washington (8-15, 5-5), defeating the Colonials tonight 61-46.
There is no other way to begin a post-game recap of this game than by starting with Nicole Cardaño-Hillary. The Sophomore scored a career-high 37 points along with 9 rebounds and 3 steals. If that doesn’t impress you enough (then you’re probably not human, but also..), take a look at this:
Folks, let me tell you: @nikkich_14 is SPECIAL. She OUTSCORED GW 22-21 in the first half. That's phenomenal. #GetPatriotic #RevRivalry
— Daniel Frank (@n1a2v3y4) February 7, 2019
This was already to be a special night for Nicole, as she was honored pregame for recording her 1,000th career point in the game at Saint Louis last Sunday.
Pregame ceremony honoring Nicole Cardaño-Hillary scoring 1,000 career points prior to tip-off here. pic.twitter.com/auwUc4F1jd
— Daniel Frank (@n1a2v3y4) February 7, 2019
But even prior to tip-off, George Mason got a breath of fresh air, as senior Casey Davis returned:
Early development from EBA is Casey Davis is BACK. She's warming up on the floor, and as it looks like from various players' social medias, she may play today. She has not played since Dec 9 at EKU. #RevRivalry
— Daniel Frank (@n1a2v3y4) February 6, 2019
The game started off rather evenly between Mason and GW, with both teams trading buckets, though several problems for GW were emerging already. The Colonials shot just 36% in the first quarter to the Patriots’ 46% and that would be the story throughout the game. Especially in the third quarter when Mason hit a dry spell offensively, GW never was quite able to hit those big shots that would’ve made this game really interesting.
For example, just when it looked like GW was going to close the gap further, Alexis Grate drilled a three with the shot clock expiring to restore the Patriots’ 10 point lead.
But this was, simply put, a game that George Mason really needed to win. Yes, it snapped a two-game losing skid, but to finally be able to get that monkey off their backs and sweep GW after years of being swept, should do a lot to help their confidence.
When I brought up this fact in the post-game presser, head coach Nyla Milleson reacted by saying “ooh, it’s been a long time coming,” which earned a laugh and a smile from both Nicole Cardaño-Hillary and Alexsis Grate.
Milleson did try to downplay the significance of the sweep, and this game, emphasizing, “first of all, this was the next game on our schedule. So it happened to be GW, coming off two tough road loses, so we knew we just had to get locked in and focused. We did not shoot the ball well on the road, and we were glad to be back home.”
She furthered by saying, “you know, this A-10 is crazy this year. We just gotta stay focused on what we do, we gotta execute, try not to have lulls on the offensive end, that we once again had tonight, but the difference was that we really continued to guard and did a lot of good things on the defensive end.”
Coach then did let a little smile out, admitting, “yeah, two in a row over GW feels good,” before reiterating, “it was just the next game on our schedule and now we’ve gotta get ready for Fordham on Sunday.”
