After Strong Starts, Teams Going in Opposite Directions
By Connect Mason Sports Director Damien Sordelett. Photos by Broadside Photo Editor Courtney Erland.
Lady Patriots hit a wall as the Men try to catch up with VCU
With a week of classes already completed, students are getting back into the sports swing in Mason Nation. Over the winter break, the men and women’s basketball teams continued play to assert their positions in the Colonial Athletic Association. With a few non-conference games sprinkled in between, both teams aspired to head into this semester on a strong note and ranked high in the CAA. Here is a quick glimpse into the games over break:
George Mason women vs. Winthrop, Dec. 30
Latiesha Wade scored a career-high 27 points, 16 coming in the first half, as George Mason defeated Winthrop 67-56 in the first game of a doubleheader at the Patriot Center.
Wade added six steals and Casey Quigley scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds. George Mason (6-4) took advantage of 25 Winthrop (8-5) turnovers and converted those to 25 points.
“We’ve been talking about getting up on teams and then staying up and I think we did a really good job of that today,” Quigley said. “We added to our momentum, we kept pushing the ball, we tried to get some steals, our defense really influenced our offense because we got a lot in transition.”
George Mason men vs. Liberty, Dec. 30
Will Thomas led a balanced attach for George Mason (9-3), scoring a team-high 17 points and grabbing 11 rebounds as all five Patriot starters scored in double figures as Liberty (6-7) fell at the Patriot Center 72-64 before 6,083.
Dre Smith scored 17, Folarin Campbell scored 14 and John Vaughan added 13 as the Patriots were able to shake off a one-point halftime lead and put away the Flames in the second half, thanks in part to the perimeter players hitting 9 3-pointers.
“One of the things we spent a lot of time on after Christmas was attacking the zones. I think our guards are very, very comfortable if they get an open look from 3 of shooting it,” George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said. “When they are packed in around Will the way they were, it’s hard to throw him the ball. The nice thing about tonight for us is as good as balance that Liberty had, ours was even a little bit better."
George Mason men vs. Towson, Jan. 5
Will Thomas again led a balanced effort, scoring 20 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, and converted two offensive rebounds into scores in the final three minutes as George Mason held off Towson 72-63 before 4,945 at the Patriot Center.
John Vaughan added 19 points and 6 rebounds as George Mason (2-1 CAA, 10-4) withstood a hot-shooting Towson (1-2, 5-8) squad, which hit seven 3-pointers in the second half to keep the contest close.
“We knew we had to pick it up on defense,” Thomas said. “They hit a lot of 3’s in the second half, we had to stop them from hitting 3’s. On offense, we had to execute against whatever defense they were in, man or the zone.”
George Mason women vs. Delaware, Jan. 6
George Mason (0-1 CAA, 6-5) did not score for nearly the first eight minutes of the game and never led in their first CAA contest of the season, falling to Delaware (1-0 CAA, 2-11) 64-49 before 1,666 at the Patriot Center.
Rashauna Hobbs scored a team-high 12 points for the Patriots but that could not overcome the Blue Hens from going to the line 37 times and hitting 30 of those attempts. Delaware also held a strong edge on the glass, out rebounding the Patriots 46-30.
“You are not going to beat many people when you shoot 29 percent from the field and that’s what we did,” George Mason coach Debbie Taneyhill said. “We did not shoot the ball, we gave up 16 offensive rebounds, Delaware took us out of our game and we did not respond.”
George Mason men vs. Northeastern, Jan. 12
Cam Long scored 12 first-half points and John Vaughan added a game-high 16 as the Patriots shot 58.5 percent from the field en route to an 80-52 victory over Northeastern before 6,144 at the Patriot Center.
This game was over early as George Mason (3-2 CAA, 11-5) held Northeastern (2-3 CAA, 6-9) to 20 first half points, building an 18-point halftime lead that increased to as many as 34 in the second half.
“I thought tonight’s game was very similar to our Drexel game, where our defensive intensity did not let up,” George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said. “We kept contesting passes, contesting shots, going after rebounds and our defense really led to very, very good offense of sharing the ball, finding the open man.”
George Mason women vs. Drexel, Jan. 13
Despite getting out to an early 7-0 lead, George Mason (1-2 CAA, 7-6) succumbed to a 13-0 run by Drexel midway through the first half and could never recover as the Dragons (3-0 CAA, 8-6) defeated the Patriots 62-42 before 624 at the Patriot Center.
The Patriots only placed two players in double figures, Latiesha Wade with 14 and Rashauna Hobbs with 12. The Patriots struggled again from the field, shooting only 28.6 percent and just 14-of-30 from the free throw line.
“For us, the issue was our offensive production. We made four field goals the entire second half,” George Mason coach Debbie Taneyhill said. “You’re not going to beat anybody playing like that. That’s clearly where the problem is right now."
George Mason women vs. James Madison, Jan. 17
Brittany Eley scored 14 points, but James Madison (3-1 CAA, 10-5) used a 15-2 run in the early stages of the second half to pull away from George Mason (1-3 CAA, 7-8) 63-46 before 565 at the Patriot Center.
The Patriots played tough defense against the Dukes through the contest. However, that still could not make up for 31 percent shooting and being out rebounded 47-30.
“JMU, they average like 74 points per game, we held them to 63. We just got to find a way to get our offense,” George Mason coach Debbie Taneyhill said. “We have to be able to score a little bit better than we are.”
George Mason men vs. James Madison, Dec. 19
Dre Smith would like to play James Madison on a more frequent basis as he topped his previous career-high with 34 points, including an NCAA record 10-of-10 3-point shooting, as George Mason shot 65.5 percent from the field en route to an impressive 96-75 road victory over James Madison before 6,659 at the JMU Convocation Center.
Smith hit eight of his 10 3’s in the second half, a half in which the team hit 70.8 percent of his shots. However, the Dukes clawed back into the contest, closing the gap to seven with 6:35 remaining before Smith started and ended a 10-0 with a pair of 3’s to stretch the gap to 17.
“He didn’t miss, I know he didn’t miss. Dre’s a shooter and I knew it coming in here, he can shoot,” said Folarin Campbell, who scored 16 points and dished out five assists. “If I see him running on a fast break and I see him going to the corner for a 3, I’m giving it to him. If he’s wide open, he’s going to knock it down. I can see the confidence in his eyes before the game and I knew it and he had a wonderful game.”
Where We Stand
After the break and through a week of classes, the men’s basketball team currently sits tied for second in the CAA, two games behind leader and rival VCU (8-1 CAA, 15-4). Both teams will face off in an ESPN2 nationally televised game on Tues., Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Patriot Center. For Mason fans, this date has been circled on the calendar since the CAA released it 2007-08 schedule.
For the women, after such a promising start to the young season, conference play has not been kind to the Lady Patriots. They have lost five of the past six games to fall to 8-10 overall and 2-5 in conference. That places them tied for eight in the conference.
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