MASON WOMEN UPSET FLORIDA

By
Daniel Frank
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0
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FAIRFAX, VA- In a unforgettable night in EagleBank Arena, George Mason Women’s Basketball put together a remarkable performance, shocking Florida 75-71 on Wednesday night. The victory was Mason’s first win over a SEC school since 1996, and the first home win over a Power 5 school since 2015.

But from the start, it didn’t appear that an upset was in the cards tonight for Mason: far from it. The Gators jumped out to an early 11-3 lead in the first four minutes of the game, scoring at will inside and forcing several bad shots from Mason. At the first media timeout, the Patriots had 3 turnovers and 2 made field goals. Jazmyn Doster picked up her second foul midway through the first period as well, just as Florida was starting to reliably score in the paint: It looked like a long night was in store.

Going to her bench, Vanessa Blair-Lewis found a spark in Jayla Adams and Paula Suarez, as the Patriots put together a mini 6-0 run, closing the gap to just 15-12 at the end of the first quarter thanks to a Jordan Wakefield three at the horn.

The second quarter, as was much of tonight, was the Amaya Scott show. The transfer from Bethune-Cookman had 15 first half points en route to her second consecutive game with 25 points scored. Still, Florida flexed their muscles early in the second quarter, extending their lead back out to 22-15 thanks to a Alberte Rimdal three with 6:16 to play in the half. Then all of a sudden, the switch flipped once again for George Mason. Shots began to fall, and with each possession that passed, you could see their confidence grow.

With 4:24 left in the half, the Patriots took their first lead of the night, thanks to a Jordan Wakefield bucket.

In all, George Mason out-scored Florida 21-14 in the second quarter, holding the Gators to just ONE offensive rebound, while out-rebounding Florida 22-15 in total.

The third quarter was largely a back-and-forth affair with both sides trading baskets. Florida out-scored Mason 19-18 in the frame, however thanks to two Amaya Scott free throws with 2:22 left in the third, George Mason took a lead they would not surrender.

In the fourth quarter, the Patriots began to create some separation. Tamia Lawhorne nearly single-handedly wiled Mason on a 7-2 run which saw the Patriots take their largest lead of the night at the time.

For every run Florida had in them, George Mason had an answer. With just over 2 minutes to go, Mason had an eight point lead.

Then the Gators began to mount a comeback. Kiara Smith was able to find an easy bucket with 1:53 to play to trim the lead to 66-60. On the ensuing possessions, Jayla Adams missed four consecutive free throws, which led to a 7-0 Florida run capped off by two Nina Rickards free throws to make it just a one-point game at 66-65 with 1:04 to go.

And yet, George Mason showed a tremendous amount of poise in the final minutes. Taylor Jameson came in off the bench once more, replacing Jayla Adams, and sank four straight free throws in the final minute. The shots were massive, not just in this game, but for her personally. The last time Taylor Jameson was at the line in a late-game situation in EBA, she missed a potentially game-winning free throw against VCU in the final seconds. She rewrote that script tonight.

With 27.9 left to play, George Mason had extended their lead back to 70-65. On the ensuing posession, Jordyn Merritt drove the floor rather uncontested, finishing to make it a 70-67 game. Amaya Scott seemed to have left the door open with 22.8 to play after making one of two from the line. Lavender Briggs was able to drive the floor once more for Florida to make it a 71-69 game with 13.8 left to play. But in the final 11 seconds, Jordan Wakefield knocked down four free throws, including a pair with 01.2 left to play to give the game it’s final margin of 75-71.

In the postgame press conference, Head Coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis walked into the media room with a huge smile on her face, saying, “Sorry that I’m wet: you can probably imagine what these girls did to me.”

Natalie Heavren, reporter for The Next replied, “I’m sure we’ll see video later,” which was met with a rousing laughter from all in the room.

And yes, the video in question is priceless:

“We talked about with this program believing big, and it’s moments like this, it’s because of moments like this that you can believe bigger than what you’ve done. You look at a team that last year won three games the whole season, let alone able to beat a team out of the SEC,” said Blair Lewis. “But we came off of two really good wins, two battles over the weekend at the Navy Classic and I think it just gave us a lot of confidence going into tonight. From the day we stepped on the court yesterday, they bought in, their focus was there all night long, not that they can play this game, but that we can win this game.”

”We came into this season, especially the returners, just looking to get on the other side of where we were last year,” said Tamia Lawhorne, who finished the night with 19 points. “I feel the coaching staff and the new players that have come have done a really great job of being together and knowing what we wanna do going into games and knowing we wanna fight hard and just keep winning games.”

And yet despite the tremendous win, Vanessa Blair-Lewis was already looking to turn the page to Norfolk State on Monday. “What we do as a team, what we’ve done as a coaching staff is the second we take that shower, the next day or that night, we turn the page. This win means means nothing if we go drop [the next game]. We’re here to win games in the A-10 conference. This is a great game for us to win outside of conference, but it’s for this one night, but we turn the page and get ready for the next person on the schedule.”

But for the night, boy what that was a HUGE win for George Mason. It’s remarkable how quickly this program has turned around, already doubling its’ win total from last season, and it is only December 1. Mason is now 6-3, and with all the momentum and confidence you could ask for.

But for last night, Amaya Scott perfect encapsulated the moment by concluding the press conference, shouting, “LET’S GET PATRIOTIC!”

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