Senior Day spoiler: George Mason drops VCU in final home game of season

Jim Swing
Sports Editor
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Senior Day festivities aside, the emotions were still raw for Beth Cunningham.

Missed opportunities, too many open looks and all the little things it takes to win a basketball game had been tactically flawed in a 69-59 loss to George Mason Sunday afternoon.

“I’m more emotional right now of just being upset,” Cunningham said. “Just being mad about how we played.”

It was the final home game for seniors Chelsea Snyder, Andrea Barbour and Courtney Hurt, who’ve combined for 83 wins in their time at VCU. Not lost, but spoiled by a Patriots team, which created open looks and did all the little things right.

“They were more aggressive,” said Hurt, who finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds. “They did the little things like loose balls and things like that really played in their favor.”

At times, George Mason would grab a marginal lead, but the game was seemingly never out of reach. The Patriots took a 14-point lead, their largest of the game, with just more than three minutes left in the first half, but the Rams were able to chisel it down to nine points before the half ended.

It was the story of the game for VCU, which teetered on the verge of a comeback all day long. But the Patriots were too fresh, too tidy and almost mistake-free to allow the rally.

“We could never seem to get over the hump,” Cunningham said. “And I kept telling our kids, as much as we hadn’t played as well as we wanted to play, we were still right there.”

The Rams cut the lead to as low as six with just under a minute remaining but couldn’t get shots to fall on two of their final three possessions. On the other end George Mason found open looks on the perimeter at free will. The Patriots buried the Rams with 42 percent shooting, hitting five of their 14 shots from beyond the arc, three of which came from junior guard Amber Easter.

“For me it’s hard to get open shots,” Hurt said. “So to see other teams get open shots is frustrating.”

VCU was stale from long range, missing 15-of-18 tries from deep. Barbour provided one of the only bright spots on a struggling Rams offense. The Charlottesville, Va. native created open looks for herself and knocked down seven of her 14 attempts. But it couldn’t combat VCU’s sloppy mistakes, which led to 10 turnovers in a game with a small margin for error.

“A lot of this stuff to be honest is to an extent just some bare basic principle type of things,” Cunningham said. “Your foundation.”

For Hurt, the loss stings but goes down as a small divot in the illustrious mark she’s put down in the Rams program. The all-time leading scorer that set seven single-season records a season ago played her final game at the Siegel Center with an emotional mindset.

“It’s a senior game so it’s the last time you step out on the court in your home gym,” Hurt said. “So the emotions through the game were going through my head.”

The VCU women’s basketball team (16-12, 9-8) visits Drexel Feb. 29 for their final game of the regular season before heading to Upper Marlboro, Md. for the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament.

Photos by Chris Conway