Women's Basketball | 2/23/2018 4:32:00 PM
WHEN: Saturday, 2 p.m.
WHERE: EagleBank Arena, Fairfax, Va.
RECORDS: Mason (21-8, 10-5 Atlantic 10); La Salle (8-20, 3-12 Atlantic 10)
SERIES RECORD: La Salle leads 5-3
LAST MEETING: Mason defeated La Salle 69-56 on Jan. 3, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pa.
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FAIRFAX, Va. – Before Saturday's game, the George Mason women's basketball team will honor their two seniors who have been so instrumental to this year's breakthrough season.
Then the Patriots will try to make history.
Mason wraps up the regular season with La Salle at 2 p.m. on Saturday at EagleBank Arena on Senior Day. Prior to tipoff, senior
Tayler Dodson and graduate student
Natalie Butler will be honored in a pregame ceremony on the court.
The senior duo will then try to help the rest of the Patriots set the school record for wins in a season. Mason (21-7, 10-5 Atlantic 10) tied the school record of 21, which has been reached five times, last Sunday with a win over St. Bonaventure. The Patriots nearly reached win No. 22 on Wednesday, but fell to A-10 regular season champ Dayton 71-66 in the final road game of the regular season.
Freshman point guard Nicole Cardano-Hillary scored 24 points and dished out six assists and Butler scored 16 points and grabbed 24 rebounds for the second straight game for her NCAA-leading 28th consecutive double-double. But the Patriots shot just 15 percent (3 of 20) in the fourth quarter as Dayton (22-4, 15-0) held onto clinch the A-10 title outright and win its 16th straight game.
Butler leads the country in rebounding (16.3 rpg) and double-doubles (28). Her 28 straight double-doubles is the fourth-longest streak in Division I women's basketball history. She also leads the conference in scoring (18.4 ppg). The Fairfax Station, Va., native has scored 20 or more points 10 times this season and grabbed at least 20 rebounds in six games.
In her lone season with the Patriots, the 6-foot-5 center has broken the school and Atlantic 10 records for single-season rebounds. She currently has 473 rebounds, which leads the nation. She also set the single-game school record and tied the A-10 mark earlier this season with 28 rebounds against Davidson. Butler, one of three team captains, spent the last two seasons at Connecticut, winning the 2016 national championship with the Huskies. The Lake Braddock grad started her collegiate career at Georgetown in 2013-14 and was the Big East Freshman of the Year as she finished fifth in the country in rebounding.
Dodson, a four-year starter and two-year captain from Harrisonburg, Va., has been a steady presence as the Patriots have gradually improved the last four years. She has played in 119 games – the most in program history – and started 107. She leads the team in assists this season with 90 and ranks second in rebounding with 5.4 a game.
She is only the seventh player in program history to have more than 400 rebounds and 200 assists. She ranks 14th in program history in assists with 231 and 23rd in rebounds with 466.
La Salle (8-20, 3-12) has lost four straight and seven of eight. The Explorers are led by senior Amy Griffin, the league's leading scorer the previous two seasons. She leads the team with 14.7 points a game and 98 assists.
This is the second meeting of the season for the teams, with the Patriots defeating La Salle 69-56 on Jan. 3 the road in Philadelphia. The Explorers lead the all-time series 5-3.
