Fourth Estate/Jordan Giles
Seniors led the way for the Patriots in a big win
BY GABRIEL KING, SPORTS EDITOR
Mason women’s basketball defeated Richmond 82-76 in overtime on Saturday at EagleBank Arena. In a matchup of the two of the A-10’s top teams, the Patriots (22-5, 13-3 Atlantic 10) prevailed to keep their title hopes alive.
“This was a really good game for us to bounce back from the last two weeks. We’ve been inundated with injuries and sickness, it was just really good to be full-steam ahead today,” Head Coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis said. The Patriots were led by 23 points from Senior Sonia Smith and a season-high 19 from Senior Taylor Jameson.
“I feel like in this situation, we’ve been waiting for Richmond. We were prepared and we were ready to take the opportunity,” Jameson said. The Patriots are now one game back of the Spiders (24-5, 14-2) in the Atlantic 10 standings.
Mason led for over 34 minutes, but Richmond rallied to take a two-point lead with 1:10 remaining. Smith then hit two free throws to tie the game, and the Spiders failed to win the game on their final possession of regulation. The Patriots outscored the Spiders 14-8 in overtime behind back-to-back 3-pointers from Ta’Viyanna Habib.
“You want to have these gut-out wins at the end of the season like this,” Blair-Lewis said. The Patriots have now won three consecutive games, all coming by single digits. In all three games, Mason rallied from fourth quarter deficits to win.
Jameson cemented herself in the Mason record books with her performance. The senior guard scored her 1,000th career point for the Patriots and moved up to 10th in program history for 3-point field goals. “It’s definitely a full-circle moment,” Jameson said. “Just being part of a legacy, being part of the history of this program. It means the world.”
Richmond was led by 20 points from Maggie Doogan and 16 from Grace Townsend. The Spiders committed 18 turnovers, including three in overtime, which proved costly.
The win moved the Patriots into a three-way tie for third place in A-10 with Duquesne and VCU. Mason holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over both teams. Richmond fell back into a tie with Saint Joseph’s for the conference lead. All five teams are separated by just one game with one week remaining in the regular season.
Mason will play its final home game against Dayton on Wednesday. The Patriots will then travel to VCU on Mar. 2 to close out the regular season. Mason can secure a double bye in the A-10 Tournament with two wins.
“I feel like we have a very great chance of getting two byes. I think we will get two byes if we keep playing how we should. So it’s very motivational to win at the end of the day,” Smith said. “That’s our motivation to keep pushing through teams [and] keep beating them.”