THE STREAK IS OVER!!! Mason Women Defeat GW 52-46

FAIRFAX, VA- For the first time since February 22, 2020, the George Mason Patriots defeated an Atlantic 10 Conference foe, snapping a streak of 24 consecutive loses dating back two seasons. Mason’s last home A-10 win came back on February 4, 2020, a

Yesterday’s win also snapped a 9-game losing streak overall, as George Mason won for the first time since taking down SEC-power Florida back on December 1. The Gators are now 15-5 (5-2 SEC) with notable wins over Florida State, #25 Texas A&M, #23 Kentucky and #11 LSU.

Walking into the post-game press-conference, truthfully, I was expecting a rowdy room filled with elation and smiles. Sure the smiles were there (under KN-95 masks), but the permeating feeling around EagleBank Arena on Saturday afternoon was simply of relief. You could sense it in the tone of Head Coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis as she sat down at the table to deliver an opening statement to the media.

“Maybe I should start off a little unprofessional: it’s about time,” said Blair-Lewis. A small smile ran across her face, as she seemed to exhale and release the weight of 24-straight loses to A-10 opponents, 18 of which she inherited from the previous coaching staff, including an 0-14 conference record just one year ago.

Everyone in the room seemed to understand what this moment meant, and what it had taken to get here.

“It was really good for us, for this program, the girls who have been here long before this coaching staff got here to finally get the first win, to get that monkey off your back, it just really feels good,” said Blair-Lewis. “They could have hung their heads at any point this season. They kept fighting, kept playing. We had a conversation after we got back from Duquesne, and I quoted them Michael Vick, that winning is great, and losing is better. And losing is better for us because we were able to take these steps to change. And we told them if they would change, if they would just change some things about their game, individually, we could come collectively. Losing for us had been better. But I’m really proud of them.”

For George Mason, while this win seemed inevitable to come at some point this season, it was not guaranteed it would happen today. Unlike last season, Mason has been competitive in every single A-10 conference game they have played this year, the fourth quarter has just proved to be their kryptonite up to this point in conference play. On the road Wednesday night at Duquesne, the Patriots held a lead in the third quarter, before getting out-scored 20-9 in the fourth quarter.

In fact, entering today, George Mason had been out-scored 102-75 in the fourth quarter of their last five games. On Saturday, after Mason had built and early 28-9 lead, George Washington seemed poised to, yet again, prove that the fourth quarter would be the downfall of the Patriots. The Colonials capped off a 15-1 run with 7:30 left to play in the 4th, tying the game at 38-38. It seemed, improbably, that George Mason was destined for a 25th consecutive A-10 loss.

Then Jazmyn Doster decided, enough was enough. The junior, who lead the Patriots today with 13 points and 11 rebounds, scored back-to-back buckets for Mason to re-establish their lead at 42-38, ending a field goal drought of nearly 8 minutes.

.@24_is_life gets it to go!#TitleIX50 | #NGWSD pic.twitter.com/2UcvRnLXUH

— Mason Women’s Basketball (@MasonWBB) January 29, 2022

After the game, when I asked Jazmyn about that sequence, she replied, “I don’t know which coach said it, or which teammate, but someone said, ‘we went on our run, they went on their run, now it’s time to lock down and play defense.’ Like they’ve given us their best shot, now we gotta sit down and do what we do.” That is exactly what the Patriots did, out-scoring GW 14-8 after the Colonials tied the game, and closed the game out down the stretch.

As the final seconds ran off the clock at EBA, Jayla Adams dribbled the ball down the floor, evading GW defenders who looked to foul one more time, and as the horn sounded, the feeling was almost surreal. The streak was over. There was no big bench celebration, no running, hugging and yelling. This was strictly business, and for once, they had finally closed the deal.

Final | Mason 52 GW 46.

FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE FEBRUARY 22, 2020 GEORGE MASON HAS AN ATLANTIC 10 WIN!!!!!!! AND THEIR FIRST HOME A-10 WIN SINCE FEBRUARY 4, 2020!!!!!! #RevRivalry #A10WBB

— Daniel Frank (@n1a2v3y4) January 29, 2022

THE STREAK IS OVER!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/QtiWaxyKzE

— Daniel Frank (@n1a2v3y4) January 29, 2022

For both Taylor Jameson and Jazmyn Doster, they knew the gravity of the moment. Especially for Jameson, for whom this was her first taste of Atlantic 10 success.

“I would just say it’s incredible, honestly,” said postgame. “Coming in as a freshman, you don’t know what to expect, and so it’s hard to swallow to come in and not win any games. But this team has been phenomenal, it’s been a lot of hard practices and a lot of hard conversations, but I feel like today we was able to put the puzzles together and support each other and just come up with the win.”

Jazmyn echoed the sentiment, “I feel like it’s been a long time coming, a lot of long days in practice, just trying to make sure, like coach said, that one thing we need was to never give up to get this win, just like coach said.” Doster is one of just four Patriots on the roster who had ever experienced an A-10 win before. “To feel like we finally got it to work as a team and do what we’re supposed to do feels great, especially with this coaching staff.”

Not lost in the win was the 50th celebration of National Girls and Women in Sport Day, honoring the passage of Title IX. When asked about it after the game, Vanessa Blair-Lewis seemed honored to talk in that moment: “We stand on the shoulders of all those young ladies who didn’t have these opportunities. They didn’t have sports, they didn’t have teams at universities, they didn’t have scholarships. There were women back in the 70s that decided enough is enough, and they went to the Federal government and they made change. The reason we’re playing is because of those women who fought for us. So it means a whole lot, it means that we don’t take for granted, every single day, that we get the opportunity to play this sport, that we get the chance to live out our dreams in front of other girls who are going to look at them and wanna be like them.”

Ironically, George Mason’s last home A-10 win also happened to be on NWGSD, a 73-56 win over UMass.

“The only important game now is the next one,” said Blair-Lewis. “We gotta turn our focus, enjoy this win and this victory for the program individually, and then we gotta get back to work. We still have a long way to go. The team we had in November, we’re struggling to get back now. Finally we’re getting back after COVID, after some injuries, getting some players healthy again. And so we’re trying to get back to that mid-season stride.”

Job not finished, but for today, a job well done.