WHO: Women's Basketball vs Duquesne
WHERE: EagleBank Arena, Fairfax, Va.
FINAL SCORE: Duquesne 72, Mason 56
KEY PLAYERS: Taylor Brown - 16 points; Kara Wright - 15 points, 8 rebounds (team-high)
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1st
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2nd
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3rd
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4th
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TOTAL
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Duquesne (14-1, 2-0 A-10)
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15
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16
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18
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23
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72
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George Mason (6-9, 1-1 A-10)_
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15
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17
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12
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12
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56
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Fairfax, Va. – George Mason University's women's basketball team led for the majority of its game against Duquesne on Thursday night, but shooting troubles in the fourth quarter prevented the Patriots to deny the Dukes their record-breaking 13th consecutive victory, 72-56.
GAME NOTES
-Redshirt senior guard Taylor Brown led the Patriots with 16 points after scoring three of Mason's four 3-pointers in the contest. Redshirt junior guard Kara Wright had another good game with 15 points on 5-10 from the floor and grabbed team-high, while redshirt senior forward Kristi Mokube recorded double digits in second-straight game with 10 points.
-Deva'Nyar Workman had game-high 21 points and 12 rebounds and recorded a perfect 9-9 from the free-throw line. Three additional Dukes finished in double digits – Kadri-Ann Lass and Amadea Szamosi had 13 apiece, while April Robinson contributed 11, along with game-high 7 assists.
-Mason got the game going with a 5-0 run in the first 2:29 with two converted free throw attempts by Wright and a 3-pointer by Brown. However, Duquesne's conference-leading offense turned on soon after and the Dukes took a 8-7 lead before the media timeout.
-After the teams came out of the huddle, the game continued to be even and the scoreboard reflected it at the end of the first quarter, 15-15.
-Two additional 3-pointers by Brown early in the second quarter got the Patriots going offensively and they led by as many as four at 23-19, but four consecutive points by Workman tied the game for the fifth time.
-Mason forced turnovers on three consecutive Duquesne possessions to score seven unanswered points and grab its largest lead at 32-25. The Dukes found their stride in the final two minutes of the half and went on a 6-0 run themselves, but the Patriots still retained a one-point lead at halftime, 32-31.
-Neither team could score a field goal for the first two minutes after the intermission, keeping the game even at 32 on Szamosi's free throw, but a three-point play by Wright gave Mason a 37-34 lead and some momentum going into the latter half of the third quarter.
-Two converted free throws by Szamosi culminated a 9-0 run by Duquesne to give the Dukes a 46-39 lead – their largest – with just over two minutes left to play in the third quarter. The seven-point lead remained until the final seconds of the period, but the Patriots finished the quarter with a much-needed basket, courtesy of Brown, to cut the lead to five going into the final period, 49-44.
-Mason fought back early in the fourth quarter and came within two at 52-50, but a 2:32-lasting scoring drought for the Patriots allowed Duquesne to pull away by game-high eight points at 60-52. Within the last three minutes, Duquesne's lead reached double digits for the first time at 64-54.
-The Patriots made additional misses from the floor trying to reduce the lead in the final minutes, giving the Dukes an opportunity to increase their advantage before the final buzzer for the final scoreline of 72-56.
STAT BREAKDOWN
-Mason held Duquesne, the best offensive team in the Atlantic 10 Conference, to a 38.3% shooting performance (23-60), but Mason's slightly better 39.0% shooting (23-59) was not enough to end the Dukes' impressive win streak.
-The teams were tied in rebounds in the contest, each grabbing 38.
-Duquesne accumulated 13 points more than Mason from the free-throw line, going 19-23 on the night while limiting the Patriots' trips to the charity stripe, 6-7.
-The Dukes' bench was the first to outscore Mason's this season, contributing 24 points and holding the Patriots to season-low 17 points off the bench.
POST-GAME QUOTES
"We are really proud of our team's effort tonight, particularly on the defensive end. We held a great offensive team in check for the majority of the game. A couple of scoring droughts and our inability to get to the free-throw line were the difference." - Mason's head coach Nyla Milleson
NEXT ON THE COURT
-Mason continues its homestand on Sunday, welcoming La Salle to EagleBank Arena at 2 p.m.
