Northeastern Too Much for Women's Basketball in 65-56 Defeat

Feb. 21, 2008

BOSTON - The George Mason women's basketball team had never lost to the Northeastern Huskies in the two schools' fledgling Colonial Athletic Association rivalry, but NU used a late second-half rally to hold off the Patriots, 65-56, on Thursday evening at Solomon Court. The loss dropped the Patriots to 9-16, 3-11 in the conference, while the Huskies improved to 9-15 (4-10 CAA) by ending a four-game losing streak against Mason.

The Patriots were led by sophomore Rashauna Hobbs, who scored 10 points. Northeastern was paced on offense by Shaylese Smallwood, who led all scorers with 26 points.

Both teams struggled offensively in the early minutes of the game, as poor shooting on both ends of the court kept the teams within a point for over seven minutes. Seven unanswered points by the Huskies over a 3:56 span, though, broke open the game.

Wade ended the run on a fast-break layup to cut the gap to 14-10 with 7:44 left in the opening stanza. NU would see its lead swell as large as 14 after an 8-0 run put the Huskies up 28-14. However, Mason pieced together an 8-3 run of its own to cut the gap to single-digits heading into halftime at 31-22. In the first half, the Huskies' Smallwood scored 18 of the team's 31 points, while Henson led the Patriots with six points.

A pair of Broadus baskets opened up the second period of play, pulling the Patriots within five. Mason continued working, moving within four at the 13:29 mark on a pair of free throws by Brittney Wilkins. The teams remained close for most of the middle moments of the second half, but the Huskies pulled away late in the game to pick up the win.

Mason returns home on Sunday to host Towson at 3 p.m., in a game which will be televised by Comcast SportsNet PLUS. The game can be found locally on Cox channel 74 (Fairfax County), Comcast channel 24 (Reston), channel 25 (Prince William and Loudoun Counties) and channel 77 (Arlington County), Verizon FiOS channel 1, DirecTV channel 659, and Dish Network channel 447. For other areas, please visit http://midatlantic.comcastsportsnet.com.