The #8 Delaware Blue Hen's (25-1) were not only one of the hottest teams coming into the match-up against George Mason (13-14) on Thursday, but were one of the hottest teams in the entire nation. Delaware made sure that Mason would not be the team to derail them from their current 15 game winning streak, beating the Patriots 71-53 in Newark. Currently the Blue Hen's are defeating their opponents by an average of 16.2 ppg through the last 5 contests.
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| Donne Leads NCAA in Scoring |
This second meeting between the Blue Hen's and the Patriots was reminiscent of the first match-up, in that no one could stop Delaware's dynamic scorer Elena Delle Donne. Delaware's Della Donne, the multi-sport ex-Connecticut Huskie recruit, reached her NCAA leading scoring average when she dropped 28 points along with 11 rebounds on the Patriots Thursday night. Taleia Moton did her best to keep the Patriots on pace with the offensive output of Delaware, as she contributed 18 points in the game, but only shot 35% from the field on the night.
The rest of the four Mason starters went 9 of 33 from the field for a dismal 27.7% shooting percentage for the game. Coming into the game Mason knew that Delle Donne was going to get her points, but it would be important to make her work for them and to neutralize her teammate's contributions. Unfortunately the Patriots weren't able to do this, allowing Delaware to shoot 49% for the game, with Danielle Parker compiling a double-double(14 pts, 12 rbs) and Lauren Carra scoring 11 points along with 7 rebounds.
For games that Mason have won this season, the production of Janaa Pickard and Amber Easter have been key to accompanying Taleia Moton's steady performances over the season. Since the game that the Patriots played the Hofstra Pride on February 12th, in which Pickard had 17 and 10 while Easter had 19 and 11, neither of these players have had a double-digit scoring output since. Against Delaware, the duo of Pickard and Easter combined only for 13 points on 5 of 21 shooting from the field. This recipe of poor shooting from the starters, and the lack of defense overall, is what ultimately lead to the blow-out victory for Delaware.
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| Tharrington had 10 pts vs UD |
The bright spot of the night was the performance of the Patriot's transfer-junior forward Joyous Tharrington, who had one of her best performances of the season. All year long in limited time she has shown the skill to score, but has never been given a full-time opportunity. On Thursday though, Tharrington played 26 minutes while scoring 10 points on 5 of 9 shooting and hauling in 6 rebounds. It was encouraging to see her get meaningful minutes in a important game, while shooting the ball efficiently. This is something that Coach Porter can build upon going into the CAA tournament and onto next season, knowing that Tharrington in able and ready to step her game up to playing big time minute productively.
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| Hurt ranks 1st in Rebounds in NCAA |
Up next for the Patriots is their final road game of the season at rival VCU. The Patriots again must go up against not only one of the best players in the CAA, but one of the best in the entire NCAA. VCU's forward Courtney Hurt is currently ranked 9th in scoring (21.9 ppg) and 1st in rebounding (13.1 rpg) in the NCAA.
In Mason's first match-up at home this season against the Rams, Evelyn Lewis and the rest of the forwards were able to effectivly contain Courtney Hurt to only 5 total rebounds and only 17 points (7 of 17) in 39 minutes of court time. In the similar case of Delle Donne, Courtney Hurt is going to score her points. But Mason in the first match-up, clearly made it difficult for her to score limiting her to only 41% shooting and close to a season low in rebounds. This led to a Mason win against the Rams by 13 points.
But this was almost 5 weeks ago and this time the Patriots are on the road where they have only won 3 games all season. The Patriots will need to apply the same principles they did the first time around with tough pressure form Evelyn Lewis down low and a balanced scoring attack of Pickard, Easter, and Moton.
Tip-off is set for 2pm today, Sunday the 26th in Richmond.
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| Moton set the single season scoring record vs UD |
We also want to recognize that Taleia Moton broke the single-season scoring record during Thursday game against Delaware. The previous scoring mark for George Mason women's basketball was 549 points set by Keri Chaconas in the 95-96' season. With Moton's 18 points against Delaware, she has now set the new single-season mark at 565 and will look to add to it Sunday against VCU. Taleia is currently the nation's 12th ranked scorer with 21 ppg. Congrats Taleia!
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