HOUSTON – Graduate student Natalie Butler's impressive season with the George Mason women's basketball team continued on Thursday night. 

In a big, big way.  

Butler scored a career-high 35 points and grabbed 20 rebounds but turnovers caught up with the Patriots in an 82-73 loss to Houston at H&PE Arena. A late 10-0 run by the Cougars snapped Mason's four-game winning streak in its lone road game in December. All three of Mason's losses have come on the road to sub-60 RPI teams: Houston (32), Michigan (34) and Colorado (52).

Butler's 35 points were the most by a Patriot in almost exactly three years as Taylor Brown last scored 35 on Dec. 22, 2014 against Longwood. Butler became just the 17th player in program history to score at least 30 points in a game. She also posted her 12th straight double-double, which leads the country. 

The 6-foot-5 center from Fairfax Station, Va., shot 13 of 16 from the field and 9 of 16 from the free-throw line. By halftime, she had 26 points and 12 rebounds.

Butler grabbed 20 rebounds for the first time this season, just one shy of a career high. She has recorded 20 rebounds or more four times in her career. It was the third time Butler had faced Houston as the graduate transfer played the Cougars each of the last two seasons with Connecticut. It also marked the first 20-point, 20-rebound performance by a Patriot since Janaa Pickard had 21 points and 21 rebounds against Utah Valley on Nov. 14, 2013.

Mason (10-3) committed 33 turnovers, which the Cougars (10-3) converted into 35 points. The Patriots trailed by as many as 10 points in the first quarter but battled back behind Butler's gargantuan effort.

The game featured eight leads and eight ties. Mason took its last lead of the game, 68-67, with 3:08 left on a free throw by Butler. The Cougars roared in front with a 10-0 run, including eight points in less than a minute. 

A 3-point play by Serithia Hawkins gave Houston an insurmountable 77-68 lead. The Patriots pulled within five with 29 seconds to go but Houston made five of its final six free throws to seal the victory.

Nicole Cardano-Hillary added 14 points in a homecoming of sorts for the freshman point guard. Originally from Spain, Cardano-Hillary moved to Austin, Texas when she was 12 and was playing in front of a bevy of family and friends. 

She was plagued by foul trouble, picking up her fourth with nearly six minutes left in the third quarter. She returned in the fourth period to score eight points and spark a Patriots' rally. She helped turn a seven-point fourth-quarter deficit into a one-point lead on Butler's free throw. She fouled out, though, with 2:05 left and Mason trailing by a point. The Patriots failed to make a basket from the field the rest of the game.

Sophomore Jacy Bolton and redshirt junior Camden Musgrave each scored 10 points. It was a Mason-high in points for Musgrave, a transfer from Central Connecticut State, and she did so coming off the bench.

The Patriots now head home for the holidays, before returning to the court next Thursday, Dec. 28, to host Longwood at EagleBank Arena in their final non-conference game.