Taleia Moton and Three Other Patriots Take Home Honors at CAA Awards Ceremony

Senior guard Taleia Moton continues to cement her lasting legacy at George Mason University by being selected All-Colonial Athletic Association First Team. This is Moton's first time being selected, but it is also the first time George Mason University has had a player receive that acknowledgement since it was awarded to Jen Derevjanik in 2004.

Taleia Moton is most deserving of the honor of being  on the All-CAA First Team solely based on her stats. At the culmination of the regular season she was averaging 20.7 points per game, ranking her 12th in the nation, with a field goal percentage of 44.9%. But Taleia has done more then just score hoops. She hauls down 4 rebounds a game, leads the team with 66 steals(21 more then 2nd ranked Rahneeka Saunders), and is second on the team in assists with 69 or 2.4 per game.

But the awards that Coach Porter and her staff really should be most proud of is having three players being recognized as Honorable Mentions for the CAA All-Academic Team. Janaa Pickard, Joyous Tharrington, and Cierra Strickland all received this recognition for their work outside and inside of the gym. What makes this more impressive is that these three players are not ones that don't ever see court time or are injured and all they do is study. To even be considered for an All-Academic Team, in most cases, you must play in 50% of your team's games as well as be beyond your first year enrolled at the institution. Sophomore Janaa Pickard is a starting foward who averages 28 minutes a game along with 8 points per contest.  Junior Joyous Tharrington is a emerging player who averages 15 minutes of court time, and contributes 3.8 ppg. Finally sophomore Cierra Strickland averages just over 9 minutes a game and 1.7 ppg. Coach Porter and her coaching staff should be proud to see that while improving their overall record every season, they are not compromising the education of their student-athletes. Also keep in mind that Taleia Moton has already achieved her Bachelor's degree in Communication's and is already pursuing a second degree.

The CAA Awards Banquet was a great showing for Coach Porter and the state of the Mason women's basketball program. Last year the team only had 2 players recieving recognition, and this year it was doubled. The voting is done by coaches, and it shows that coaches are more and more starting to realize the this Mason team  and program is something to be respected.

Just a note, Player of the Year in the conference went to University of Delaware junior Elena Delle Donne. She who won it for the second time and leads the NCAA in scoring with 28.3 ppg. Delle Donne has pushed the Blue Hen's to #7 national ranking and a 27-1 record overall.

Mason Gets Pecked by the Blue Hens 53-71, Look to Herd the Rams of VCU

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.

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.

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.

 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.

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!

Keith's Keys to the Game: GMU vs. Northeastern

George Mason (7-7) squares off Thursday night in Boston against conference foe Northeastern(2-12). Both teams come in riding similar slumps, each having lost the last 6 of 7 games and looking to break those streaks and improve their conference records.

What to Watch For:


Mason is coming off a loss to #21 Delaware at home, but were able to give the Blue Hen's one of their most competitive matches in recent months. This was in part due to the Patriots being able to shoot 40% from the field in the first half against a tough defense, and also by the resurgent scoring of Taleia Moton who dropped 30 points in the game while shooting 50% from the field. But once again old problems crept up on the Patriots, and they will need to fix these problems before they face the Northeastern Huskies.

Mason will absolutely need bench production. The Patriots will have to get more then 5 points in 56 minutes of playing time from the bench, in which is all they got against #21 Delaware. Northeastern has seven players that average over 5 points per contest in contrast to Mason's five players, and this figure shows the Huskies have a number of players who can shoot from the floor. Mason did a great job against Delaware to shut down their role players, but allowed their All-American forward Delle Donne to absolutely dominate play on the court and drop 40 points. Mason will have to strive to play defense across the board and not let Jewel Tunstull of Northeastern, who comes in averaging 13 ppg on 62% shooting from the field,  from dominating  play.

For Mason to secure a victory on the road, it will be important for the Patriots to come out the gates hot and open up a big lead early in the first half of play. So far this season Northeastern is being dominated and outscored in the first half by its opponents with a margin of 394 to 513, a deficit of -119 points just in the opening 20 minuets. Mason on the other hand is only being outscored by a margin of -4 compared to it's opponents, while the Patriots have outscored their opponents by a margin of +7 in the second half on the course of the season. If Mason is able to build a decent lead in the first half, Northeastern has shown over the  season so far that they are very unlikely to be able to overcome a large deficit especially in the second half of play.

In order for Mason to build up this first half lead they will need to focus on two things, rebounding and turnovers. The Huskies only come into tonight's game averaging 33 rebound a game, compared to Mason's 38 per game. Their should be an emphasis on Evelyn Lewis and Janaa Pickard to really push down low and try to fight hard for rebounds against the tall, but poor rebounding Notheastern forwards and guards. Other then the 6'3 Jewel Tunstull, who averages 7 rebounds a game, only 1 other player averages more then 4 rebounds.

As far as turnovers go, the Huskies have had trouble controlling the ball and it has lead to some recent close defeats. Against  CAA foe UNCW, Northeastern committed 23 turnovers in a 7 point defeat. It will be pertinent for two of the best defensive guards in the CAA, Rahneeka Saunders and Taleia Moton, to up the defensive pressure and force the Huskies into committing their season average 20 turnovers per contest and to then capitalize by scoring on those opportunities.

It will be key to see some significant bench production, in the upwards of +10 points, to help secure the victory tonight. And it wouldn't hurt if Taleia Moton kept up her average by dropping 21 points, but this team needs a balance in order to be successful going forward.

Tip-off is at 7 pm in Boston. Mason, 1-2 in conference play, look to improve to .500 and break a season high 4 game losing streak against the lowly Huskies who are 0-3 in the CAA. Mason (7-7) defeated  Northeastern (2-12) in their last match-up in March 2011 at home by 22 points.