It has been an exciting winter for George Mason University’s basketball teams. One made history by earning a Division I NCAA tournament berth, while the other just missed making the big March Madness dance.
The women’s team (27-5) received an automatic berth by winning the Atlantic 10 Conference tourney earlier this month as the No. 2 seed. The George Mason men came close to the same feat, but lost in the Atlantic 10 tournament final to Virginia Commonwealth University in a 68-63 heartbreaker on Sunday, March 16.
The NCAA berth is the women’s first in program history. The men have been in the NCAA tournament before, including the magical 2005-2006 campaign that led to the Final Four of the national tourney — their only appearance in school history.
The Patriots women defeated St. Joseph’s, 73-58, in their conference championship game on Sunday (March 9). Paula Suarez scored 23 points, and Zahirah Walton scored 19 with eight rebounds.
George Mason took the lead by outscoring St. Joseph’s 26-12 in the third quarter.
George Mason was 3-0 in the women’s tourney, routing St. Louis University, 87-57, in the quarterfinals and Davidson College, 63-50, in the semifinals.
Next, for the NCAA tournament, the women are the No. 11 seed in Region I. They are scheduled to face Florida State (23-8) in a first-round game on Saturday, March 22 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at a time to be determined.
Walton is George Mason’s leading scorer, averaging 15.1 points per game and 5.9 rebounds. She leads the team in steals and is second in assists and blocks. Kennedy Harris is the second leading scorer (13.9 points a game), while Suarez averages 11.9 points and has a team-best 139 assists.
Nalani Kaysia averages 7.5 points and a team-high 9.8 rebounds. Ta’Viyanna Habig averages 6.8 points and 3.4 rebounds a contest.
Louis Volker, Nekhu Mitchell, Page Greenberg and Jada Brown are other top contributors for the women.
Men’s team misses game-tying shot and NCAA berth
The George Mason men (26-8) were 2-1 in the Atlantic 10 tourney. They rallied from a halftime deficit to top George Washington, 80-65, in the quarterfinals before leading pretty much the entire game to defeat St. Joseph’s, 74-68, in the semifinals.
Against George Washington, Jalen Haynes led George Mason with 24 points. Jared Billups had 18 points, Darius Maddox and K.D. Johnson notched 11 each Brayden O’Connor 10.
Harris had 24 points in the semifinal, Maddox 19 and Johnson 12.
In yesterday’s final against VCU, Haynes had 17 points and Maddox 12. The Patriots were on the verge of tying up the score and forcing overtime when an attempted three-point shot by forward Zach Anderson spun off the rim in the game’s final seconds, the Washington Post reported.
After the loss, the George Mason men weren’t offered an NCAA berth, becoming the first team with 26 wins on Selection Sunday to miss out on the national tournament in the A-10 conference’s 49-year history, per the Washington Post.
However, the Patriots did receive and accepted a bid to play in the 32-team National Invitational Tournament. They will host a first-round game against the Samford Bulldogs (22-10) on Tuesday, March 26 at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, starting at 6 p.m.
