A lump of coal might have been a slightly more desirable result than what the Towson women’s basketball team produced against visiting George Mason on Friday afternoon.
Armed with a 54-40 advantage early in the third quarter, the Tigers allowed the Patriots to outscore them, 43-22, in the final 17:10 en route to an 83-76 loss before an announced 515 at TU Arena.
The Tigers (7-3) have dropped two straight after riding a six-game winning streak and won’t play for the next 14 days until they open the Coastal Athletic Association portion of their schedule Jan. 5 at Elon.
“A very disappointing loss going into our Christmas break,” coach Laura Harper said. “Credit George Mason for their second half. In my opinion, it was a game of two halves because we gave up 45 points in the second half, and anytime we’re going to give up that amount of points, it’s going to be really hard for us to win basketball games. … We’ve got to find the grit and toughness to find a way to hold people.”
Towson connected on a season-high 10 3-pointers on 19 attempts, converting a season-best 52.6% from that distance. And redshirt junior shooting guard Kylie Kornegay-Lucas was two assists shy of her second career triple-double in racking up 22 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists.
But the Tigers turned the ball over 21 times, and George Mason scored 20 points off of those giveaways, including 15 in the second half. The Patriots seemed to surprise Towson by employing a full-court press that often forced their opponent to accelerate the pace, which contributed to some poor decisions.
“They pressed us quite a bit, and we were a little bit flustered off of their press,” Harper said. “It’s definitely an area of growth for us. … We knew that defensively, they were going to be aggressive. They were going to be on the line, up the line, iso-ing our ball screens, doing everything they can. Ultimately, they were able to convert a lot of our turnovers into points. So yes, it definitely affected us offensively.”
Kornegay-Lucas finished with a season-worst eight turnovers and scored only eight points on 3 of 7 shooting in the second half. And she wasn’t alone as the Tigers dropped from a 64.5% success rate in the first half (including 66.7% from 3-point range) to 32.3% in the second half (40% on 3-pointers).
George Mason coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis acknowledged that she usually doesn’t have to go to the full-court press because her team has been solid with their half-court defense. But she said the reasoning behind the full-court press Friday was to prevent Kornegay-Lucas and her teammates from running their half-court offense too easily.
“We just couldn’t let them settle,” said Blair-Lewis, who coached at Mount St. Mary’s from 1998 to 2007. “They were running a really good half-court offense, and it was lending them to wide-open threes and layups. So for us, we just wanted to stall them a little bit and take some time off the clock so that they don’t have that much time to run their stuff. And then hopefully, to turn them over, which we were able to do a few times.”
The Patriots’ comeback was fueled largely by the duo of Zahirah Walton and Sonia Smith. Walton, a 5-foot-11 sophomore power forward, came off the bench to score 17 of her career-high 23 points in the second half, including 10 in the fourth quarter. Smith, a senior point guard, scored eight of her 20 points in the third quarter and collected career-best-tying 10 rebounds.
George Mason’s final 15 points of the third quarter were split between Walton and Smith, who scored the first eight points. Walton scored the last seven, and the Patriots trailed, 59-55, at the end of the period.
“I started seeing the opening,” said Walton, who added three rebounds and three steals. “I feel like taking it to the hoop was the best thing for the team. So that’s what I did.”
In addition to Kornegay-Lucas, the Tigers got 15 points from redshirt junior shooting guard Aminata Diakite in only her second start of the season and 12 points and six rebounds from junior power forward Quinzia Fulmore.
Kornegay-Lucas took a defiant approach to the team’s latest setback.
“It’s disappointing going into break with a loss,” she said. “But it’s just motivation for when we come back for the in-season games.”
Harper echoed that sentiment, citing the program’s upset loss to Stony Brook in last season’s conference tournament final.
“I’m not concerned,” she said. “This team will be ready for conference. I think we still have that taste in our mouth from last year. We know that we’re going to everyone’s best shot every single time, and that was no different today.
“I think it’s just a matter of breaking down the time, making emphases on what we’re working on daily. It’s all about us, it’s about this team, it’s about the individual skills that we have to strengthen.”
CAA opener
Towson at Elon
Friday, Jan. 5, 7 p.m.
Stream: flohoops.com
