WHO: Women's Basketball at Utah
WHERE: Huntsman Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
FINAL SCORE: Utah 74, Mason 62
KEY PLAYERS: Taylor Brown – 17 points; Kristi Mokube – 10 points, 10 rebounds
| |
1st
|
2nd
|
3rd
|
4th
|
TOTAL
|
|
Utah (3-0)
|
14
|
15
|
22
|
23
|
74
|
|
George Mason (1-3)
|
17
|
17
|
14
|
14
|
62
|
Salt Lake City, Utah – Although the game was tied with less than a minute left in the third quarter, George Mason University's women's basketball team could not pull away its first road win for the season and fell to Utah 74-62 at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday night.
GAME NOTES
-Redshirt senior guard Taylor Brown had her third 17-point game of the season with the help of perfect free-throw percentage (8-8), while classmate Kristi Mokube registered a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds
-Utah's redshirt sophomore Emily Potter was above everyone on the court and finished with game-high 25 points and game-high 18 rebounds; redshirt junior Paige Crozon added 17 points on a 3-6 3-point shooting and 8 rebounds.
-Potter and Tanaeya Boclair scored the field goals to give Utah a 4-0 lead in a low-scoring beginning of the first quarter.
-Mason's drought of nine missed field goal attempts finally ended when Brown sunk a 3-pointer with just over five minutes left from the opening 10 minutes.
-As the shot progressed, Brown gave the Patriots their first lead in the game with a jumper in the final minute of the quarter before a jumper by Katrina Hutzell contributed to a 6-0 Mason run to close the quarter.
-The Patriots' lead grew to seven when Mokube converted a pair of free throws to make it 23-16.
-A 3-pointer by Paige Crozon let the Utes come within two, but consecutive field goals by Brown helped the Patriots pull away 29-23.
-Utah grabbed the last points of the half with a last-second layup by Paige Crozon to decrease Mason's lead to five at 34-29.
-Five additional points by Potter tied the score early in the second half to tie the game before two free throws by Crozon put Utah in the lead, 36-34.
-Mason provided a lightning-quick response and scored seven consecutive points to regain their five-point lead.
-A three-pointer by Kuklok in the final seconds of the third quarter gave the Utes their largest lead of the second half at 51-48.
-Utah's Danielle Rodriguez grabbed her first points of the game to give the Utes a 59-52 lead with 6:05 left in the contest.
-A three-point play by Potter gave Utah its first double-digit lead at 62-52 while Mason failed to score for over three minutes.
-The Patriots were held to only two field goals for the remainder of the game while effective shooting from the free-throw line allowed the Utes to win the contest with a final score of 74-62.
STAT BREAKDOWN
-Mason's bench had another strong night and registered 28 of the Patriots' points, as opposed to the Utes' 15, which came primarily through Katie Kuklok, who finished with nine on 3 converted 3-pointers.
-Utah outrebounded the Patriots 50-40.
-Mason forced 13 Utah turnovers, but converted only 10 points from them, as many as the Utes scored off the Patriots' six turnovers.
POST-GAME QUOTES
“We played a very talented team on the road tonight and battled until the end. We are struggling to put a consistent 40 minutes together right now. We must find a way to rebound with more toughness and score the basketball. We still continue to get better in many areas and look forward to our tournament in Alaska.” – Mason's head coach Nyla Milleson
NEXT ON THE COURT
Mason continues its road trip in the north, where it will participate in the 2015 CGI Great Alaska Shootout by playing a pair of games, the first of which will be against Western Kentucky on Nov. 24 at 10 p.m. EST.
