Huge 4th quarter pushes George Mason past Coppin women

By Keith Henry

FAIRFAX, VA- With Coppin State ahead late after 46-41 after three quarters, the issue was if they can finish the job in the 4th quarter.

Unfortunately for the Lady Eagles, George Mason gained a collective second wind and used it to overcome the Lady Eagles 59-51 at the Eaglebank Arena. 

The Lady Eagles were led by Jewel Lloyd with 20 points in the game. Coach Jermaine Woods said, "Jewel was good. But I got to do a better job of keeping the ball in Hope's hands. I did a bad job in the fourth quarter and I took the ball out of her hands. She had zero turnovers. So that's on me as well."

In the fourth quarter, it came down to rebounding for the Lady Eagles as the Patriots had second & third chances on their side of the court. That was the key to victory for George Mason (6-5). Coach Blair-Lewis said, "Those rebounds were big. They allowed us to get some separation and be able to run our stuff and be able to take our time."  

Taylor Jameson added, "Those second and third chance opportunities allowed us to show heart in those last minutes. Show that we wanted the game more. it allowed us to reset and get a good look."

Also the calls on the Lady Eagles were shoddy down the stretch. First was the technical foul on Coach Woods when he proceeded to yell to Mossi to "Always get the ball" after he asked the official about whose possession it was.

She may have thought that he was showing her up and gave Woods the technical after that. After the technical free throw, the next possession for the Patriots ended up in a jump ball, which possession would've went back to Coppin State.

However, a timeout was called by George Mason which nullified it all. Coach Woods was not commenting on the officials' calls. But you could tell by his facial expressions that he wasn't amused.

Coppin State (3-9) came into the game with only seven ladies playing and held down George Mason for about three quarters. Coach Woods said, "We were shorthanded, so we don't play a lot of people. We had seven tonight and we have to figure out a way in the end to suck it up and win."

The defense led Coppin State in the first three quarters as well. But Coach Woods wasn't happy with the fourth quarter defense, "It wasn't really our type of game defensively because we didn't play defense in the fourth quarter," said Coach Woods. "They scored 18 points in the fourth quarter. We can't let it happen if we want to be successful."

Coppin heads to George Washington on December 22 to take on the Colonials.