Jan. 7, 2010
Box Score
FAIRFAX, Va. - The George Mason women's basketball team held the halftime lead, but it was the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens who came away with a 53-44 Colonial Athletic Association victory on Thursday evening at Patriot Center, Mason's first home loss of the 2009-10 season.
The Patriots fell to 7-6 and 0-2 in conference play, while UD (9-4, 1-1 CAA) rebounded from a one-point CAA loss on Sunday for its first conference victory.
Junior Ashleigh Braxton led the Patriots with 11 points while classmate Angelee LaTouche pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds, but it was Elena Delle Donne's 25 points and 11 rebounds that paced the Blue Hens to victory. UD out-shot Mason 37.5-to-32.1 percent from the field, and while neither team connected from beyond the 3-point arc in the second half, the Blue Hens outscored Mason 33-17 in the final stanza.
Delaware opened with an 11-5 lead but the Patriots came back to tie the score at 11 with just over seven minutes expired. That was part of a 13-3 Mason run, culminating with a Brittany Poindexter layup at the 5:44 mark, which left the score 20-14 in the Patriots' favor. UD came back to within two points at 22-20, but in the final 84 seconds of the half, Braxton hit a 3-pointer and then connected on two of her three free throw attempts with a second left to set the halftime margin at 27-20.
Coming into the game without having trailed in the second half of any contest at home this year, the Patriot lead grew to 11 out of the break but the Blue Hens worked their way back into the contest, taking their first lead on a Danielle Parker layup with 11:20 showing on the clock, making the score 36-35.
It was a one-point margin in both directions for more than four minutes until a Tesia Harris layup made it 42-39. Down the stretch, the Blue Hen advantage swelled as the Patriots were held without a field goal for nearly nine minutes. Braxton's jumper with 29 seconds left put the Patriots within two scores at 50-44, but three Harris free throws in the waning seconds sealed the victory for UD.
The loss snaps the Patriots' seven-game home winning streak, part of a school-record 7-0 start to the season at home.
Mason will be back in action on Sunday, beginning a two-game intrastate road trip with a matchup at James Madison at 2 p.m. in Harrisonburg.
