WHO: Women's Basketball at Auburn
WHERE: Auburn Arena, Auburn, Ala.
FINAL SCORE: Auburn 88, Mason 59
KEY PLAYERS: Taylor Brown – 14 points
| |
1st
|
2nd
|
3rd
|
4th
|
TOTAL
|
|
George Mason (5-7)
|
20
|
12
|
12
|
15
|
59
|
|
Auburn (10-2)
|
19
|
26
|
23
|
20
|
88
|
Auburn, Ala. – George Mason University's women's basketball team led after the opening quarter, but could not cope with Auburn's full-court pressure for the remainder of the game and fell to the Tigers on Wednesday night.
GAME NOTES
-Redshirt senior guard Taylor Brown scored 14 for a second game in a row and redshirt junior guard Kara Wright contributed double digits once again with 10 points, while another redshirt junior, center Bridget O'Donnell, recorded season-high 8 points.
-Four Auburn starters finished with double digits in scoring, led by junior Brandy Montgomery with 28, including six 3-pointers; the others were Tra'Cee Tanner (17 points), Katie Frerking (15 points) and Janiah McKay (14 points).
-A long-range 3-pointer by Brown gave Mason a three-point lead at 5-2, which was increased to four at 11-7 with O'Donnell's third field goal of the game. A trip to the free-throw line and a jumper allowed Auburn to tie the score at 11 as the teams went into the media timeout.
-The Tigers came out of the huddle on a quick 4-1 run to get in the lead for the first time, but Wright took control of Mason's offense in the final minutes with 8 consecutive points to give the Patriots a 20-19 lead at the end of the first quarter.
-Coach Nyla Milleson called Mason's first timeout in the game early in the second quarter when Auburn pulled away by four for the first time in the contest at 26-22. The Tigers' unanswered run extended to six points but was ultimately put an end to with a layup by redshirt senior forward Kristi Mokube, which decreased Auburn's advantage back to four at 28-24.
-Montgomery scored 14 of Auburn's last 16 points in the second half – including four 3-pointers – to make the Tigers' halftime lead 13 at 45-32.
-Despite Auburn's 4-0 start to the second half, the Patriots responded with three defensive stops in a row and a 5-0 run on their own to make it a 12-point game, 49-37. However, Mason was limited to only two additional field goals in the period and went into the fourth quarter trailing 68-44.
-Freshman Jewel Triggs came off the bench in the fourth quarter and accumulated 5 points, 1 assist and 1 rebound, but that was not enough to spark a Mason comeback and the Patriots ultimately dropped the contest 88-59.
STAT BREAKDOWN
-Despite shooting 50% in the first half, Mason struggled to make shots after the intermission and finished the contest 22-50 from the floor (44.0%). Auburn shot 54.0% from the floor (34-63) thanks to an impressive 65.4% second-half shooting performance (17-26).
-The Tigers edged the Patriots 31-30 in a low-rebounding contest.
-Under their opponent's full-court pressure, the Patriots committed season-high 30 turnovers, which led to 40 Auburn points. The Tigers' 17 turnovers resulted in 14 points for Mason.
POST-GAME QUOTES
“We opened the game and played great first 17 minutes of basketball. We were down by four with 2:34 left in the second quarter and then down by 13 at halftime. We came out of the locker room by giving up four straight points in the first 30 seconds to put us down by 17 – those are the small stretches that we are currently unable to recover from.” – Mason's head coach Nyla Milleson
NEXT ON THE COURT
Mason continues its road trip after Christmas, when it visits Arizona on Tuesday in its final non-conference matchup. Tip-off will be at 4 p.m. EST.
