Women's hoops falls in season finale to JMU

It was senior night for Mason's star guard Taleia Moton, but her 15-point effort was not enough to take down James Madison.

George Mason (14-15, 8-10) came out strong, but couldn’t match the intensity of rival James Madison as they fell 66-54 in the Patriot Center Wednesday night.  The Dukes fielded four players in double-digit scoring in route to their seventh straight 20-win season under the direction of head coach Kenny Brooks.

“James Madison is the second best team in the league.  They not only make plays but they understand how to win,” Mason head coach Jeri Porter said.

While the focus of the night was on the three graduating seniors participating in their final home game as a Patriot, the lone bright spot was the play of junior Amber Easter. She collected her seventh double-double of the year with 18 points and 13 rebounds.

The Dukes (23-6, 14-4) made an early push as they forced an 11-4 lead just four minutes into the game.   Evelyn Lewis provided an early spark for the Patriots connecting on her first four shots from the floor and displaying some athletic moves in the process.

“She [Lewis] has slowly gotten comfortable as the season has progressed,” Porter said.” My hope is we can ride that into the CAA Tournament.”

Senior guard Taleia Moton would hand James Madison their first and only deficit of the game on a running layup in the lane to put the score at 23-21.  Moton finished the game with just three assists, as Mason had trouble circulating the ball all night.

“It’s important to stay aggressive against Madison.  We will see them in the tournament, that’s when we have to start hitting out shots,” Moton said.

The half would end with a 24-23 Madison lead.  The Dukes would shoot 50 percent from beyond the arc in the first half, led by the sharp shooting of Kirby Burkholder.  She would finish the game with 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting. 

The Patriots hung around to start the second half, keeping the score at an arm’s length.  But runs of 5-0 and 12-2 put the game out of reach.  A layup by Nikki Newman with 13 minutes to play padded the Dukes lead to 12 points. Newman proved to be a defensive nightmare all game as she used her 6’2” body to exploit weaknesses in a mediocre Patriot defensive front.

“I give credit to James Madison, they came out with energy.  They came to play,” Porter said.

A resilient Mason team willed their way back to a six-point deficit on a diet of Madison turnovers and missed shots. The run was just a little too late.  With under a minute to play the Patriots could do nothing more than foul and hope for misses. They never came as the Dukes went 4-of-6 in the final frame.

With the loss Mason will represent the seventh seed in this year’s CAA tournament to take place in Upper Marlboro, Md. on March 8-11. The Patriots will kick off the tournament as they take on tenth-seeded Northeastern on Thursday at 8 p.m.