WASHINGTON D.C.- A career night from Amaya Scott of 25 points wasn’t enough for George Mason to overcome a determined American team Tuesday night at Bender Arena. The Patriots actually had one of their better offensive performances of the season tonight, eclipsing the 60-point threshold for the third time this year, shooting at a 45% clip. More importantly, Mason shot the ball 50% and 55% in the third and fourth quarters respectively, but couldn’t slow down the Eagles’ own hot shooting, as American shot 51% from the field overall.
George Mason got off to a quick start, jumping out to a 9-4 lead five minutes into the game, but American responded ending the quarter on a 6-2 spurt to take the lead at 14-13 in the final seconds of the period. Early in the second, Paula Suarez gave the Patriots the lead right back at 15-14 before the teams traded baskets. The turning point of the game proved to be with 6:15 left in the half, when Amaya Scott was called for a technical foul for taunting after completing a three point play, which at the time gave Mason a 21-20 lead. With the clock stopped, Jade Edwards knocked down a pair of free throws to give American the lead right back, at 22-21.
George Mason would not see the lead again the rest of the night.
The Eagles ended the first half on a 7-0 run to take a 34-27 lead into halftime, but to Mason’s credit, they fought back well in the third. The Patriots opened the second half on a 6-0 run, pulling within one-point of American, at 34-33 with 8:06 left to play in the third quarter. However, the Eagles responded with a 6-0 run of their own, which extended into a 9-2 run to push the lead back to 43-35. Much of the third quarter, and early fourth quarter followed that pattern: George Mason would inch back into the game, and American would push the lead back out to a comfortable margin of at least three possessions. Mason’s last real chance came with 2:42 left in the fourth, when Jordan Wakefield went to the line and made 1-2 free throws to make it a 61-54 game.
On the ensuing possession, Jade Edwards completed an and-1 play, followed by a Riley DeRubbo layup on back-to-back plays to give the Eagles a backbreaking 65-54 lead with 1:40 left to play. The Patriots continued to fight to the bitter end, drawing to within 8 with 9.8 seconds to play before calling off the dogs to reach the final margin of defeat of 69-61.
The story of the game really was turnovers for George Mason, as they had 22, including 14 in the first half. It’s true, American had 21 turnovers of their own, but at the end of the day, that’s really something that Mason has the ability to control, and in games like this that get decided by just a couple of possessions, you cannot afford empty trips like that, especially when they lead to 24 American points off turnovers. The other story of the night was American’s ability to score in the paint, seemingly at will, scoring nearly half of their total points, 36 of them, in the paint. Furthermore, American scored an additional 16 points on 23 attempts at the foul line, getting easy points while Mason went 12/17 from the line- enough of a difference in a game like this.
Still, a very encouraging performance from the Patriots. Yes this is their second consecutive loss and third in four games, but there were a lot of positives to draw from. First and foremost, Amaya Scott had a career-high 25 points while Taylor Jameson dropped 19 points of her own. Paula Suarez, the lone freshman on the team, seemed very confident, especially in the second quarter, taking the game into her own hands a number of times offensively. While she finished with only 7 points, her impact was much greater than that.
Still, in the end, a tough loss for George Mason tonight, but a good learning experience for this team. They’ll head to Annapolis, MD this weekend for a pair of games in the Navy Thanksgiving Tournament as they’ll face Bowling Green on Saturday and Navy on Sunday. Both games will tipoff at 3:15 from Alumni Hall. It’ll be another good experience for this young group to play games on back to back days, with the month of March always on everyone’s minds. In the meantime, this team will only continue to get better, you can count on that.
