Coming off their victory over Detroit Mercy on Saturday, George Mason (2-1) is back in action Thursday night as they host local foe American (2-1).
This will be the 52nd all-time meeting between the two schools, with Mason leading the series 30-21. The Eagles defeated Mason last season at Bender Arena 86-71 behind 24 points from then-Junior Katie Marenyi. Both teams saw five different scorers in double figures, and both teams dealt with a fair amount of foul trouble, with Mason’s Nicole Cardaño-Hillary fouling out with 20 points.
RealTimeRPI.com, one of the few 1-354 rankings of Women’s basketball, ranks George Mason #108 in their Power Rankings, while American checks in at #78.
Scouting American
AU enters Thursday night at 2-1, with wins over Villanova and High Point and their lone loss coming at Ohio. American is lead by Jade Edwards who averages 21 points and 7 rebounds per game. The Eagles average 67.0 points per game, which almost perfectly mirrors George Mason’s 68.3 points.
This game intrigues me for a couple of reasons. This is the first “revenge game” of the year for Mason, as we’ve previously notes American defeated GMU a year ago.
I also think this game provides a really really good test for Mason. Yet, Virginia Tech was a good litmus test against a Power-5 school at home, but American may be the team that is most similar to Mason that the Patriots will face in the non-conference schedule.
Keys & Notes for George Mason
Nicole Cardaño-Hillary is just 28 points away from moving into 10th place in scoring all-time in program history (she currently sits at 12th with 1,267).
In addition, Sarah Kaminski moved into fourth all-time in made threes with 144 made threes and needs just two to tie Krista Jay (146).
For George Mason to be successful in this game, they’re going to need some big performances from their stars. A few more threes from Sarah, at least 15 from Nikki and a good 20-25 minutes from Camarie will go a long way. I also would imagine that free throws were a point of emphasis in practice this week, after the Patriots went just 13-21 from the line against Detroit Mercy.
This game could turn into a sneaky good game, and could be one of the most entertaining of the entire non-conference slate. Tipoff from EBA is 7:00 and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+. Get yourself to EBA!!!
