Women's hoops suffers blowout loss to No. 5 Maryland, 78-50

Head coach Jeri Porter addresses the media following the lopsided defeat at the hands of the Maryland Terrapins Sunday afternoon, with star guard Taleia Moton with her head down (John Powell).

The George Mason women’s basketball team lost their second straight game within a week, this one on their home floor, a 78-50, in a thrashing by No. 5 Maryland. The Patriots (6-3, 1-0) were dominated early and often in a game where the Terrapins (11-0, 0-0) owned every statistical category.

Mason’s only lead of the game came early, after back-to-back 3-pointers by Amber Easter and Raneeka Saunders splashed down. But a questionable timeout by Mason head Coach Jeri Porter immediately changed the outlook of the game.

“I called the timeout. I told the girls we’re playing with fool’s gold here. We need to establish an inside game,” Porter said.

The Terrapins never looked back, and Mason would go eight minutes with scoring another basket.  A Maryland three-pointer gave the Terps a 20-point lead with six minutes left in the half, and their lead built on a multitude of second chance opportunities, all due to strong rebounding. Maryland would finish the game with three players grabbing nine or more rebounds.

The lone bright spot of the day for the Patriots was the play of Joyous Tharrington. The redshirt junior came off the bench with solid defensive play, putting up eight points while going 2-for-2 from the line. It was her jumper that snapped Mason’s scoreless streak, and put the score at 40 -15.  The Patriots would end the half trailing by 24.

The second half wasn’t much different than the first, as UMD grabbed an early 26-point the lead. Mason’s star guard Taleia Moton had trouble getting her shots off all day. She would finish the day with 16 points on 6-17 shooting.  Her drive with 8:32 left in the game helped subdue the beating.

But it would only get worse, as a two-pointer by Anjale Barret gave Maryland their largest lead of the day at 77-37.

A five-point swing by Mason would put a cap on the game, and give Maryland a well-deserved win.  Surprisingly the scoring chances were there for the Patriots, who had more shot attempts then Maryland in the game, but the difference was their percentages. The Terrapins shot a quality 46 percent from the floor as compared to the Patriots’ measly 26 percent.

“The turnovers hurt us tonight,” Porter said.

Mason will have an 11-day break to put this loss behind them before playing George Washington in the Patriot Center on Dec. 22.