FAIRFAX, Va. - Led by senior Erin Shields' career-high 29 points, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team downed George Mason, 89-75, Saturday afternoon at the Patriot Center. With the win, the Hawks improve to 19-6 overall and 8-4 in the Atlantic 10.
Trailing 41-39 to start the second half, the Hawks used a 20-6 run to open the stanza as a Shields' jumper at 14:18 put her team ahead 59-47.
George Mason (7-19, 1-12 A-10) would fight back to make it a four-point game less than three minutes late, but Saint Joseph's answered as a three-pointer by Shields pushed the lead to nine, 68-59, at 10:19.
The Patriots had one last punch in them, cutting the gap to 70-68 on a Taylor Brown layup at 5:54.
The veteran SJU team answered, pushing the lead back to nine on a jumper by senior Ilze Gotfrida on an inbound pass from junior Natasha Cloud with 3:36 to play.
George Mason would get no closer than eight from there as the Hawks hit 8-of-8 from the foul line and added a layup in the final minutes for the win.
In a back-and-forth first half, George Mason jumped out to a 7-2 early lead, but the Hawks answered back with an 11-2 run to take a 13-9 edge on a three-pointer by Shields at 14:09.
The lead would change hands five times from there, with the scored tied six as the Patriots took a 41-39 lead into halftime.
As a team, Saint Joseph's shot 52.5 percent overall (31-of-59), 56.3 percent from three-point range (9-of-16) and hit 18-of-20 from the foul line. The Hawks additionally finished with 24 assists and outrebounded the Patriots 35-34.
Individually, Shields was 8-of-13 from the field, including 7-of-11 from three-point range, and added six free throws to surpass her previous high of 28 set at Dayton.
Joining Shields in double figures were Cloud, Gotfrida and redshirt junior Ashley Robinson. Cloud and Robinson each had a double-double, tallying 16 points and 12 assists, and 14 points and 11 rebounds, respectively. Gotfrida added 12 points and had five rebounds and three assists.
At the other end, Taylor Brown had 24 points as George Mason shot 44.6 percent overall (29-of-65) and hit 14-of-20 from the foul line, but shot just 18.8 percent from behind the arc (3-of-16).
Saint Joseph's returns to action Tuesday when it hosts Duquesne at 9 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on the CBS Sports Network.
Game Notes: Today's game is the first meeting with George Mason as a member of the Atlantic 10...The Hawks are now 5-1 all-time versus the Patriots...Senior Kelsey Berger and sophomores Ciara Andrews and Sarah Fairbanks each added six points apiece...Freshman Lisanne de Jonge had two rebounds, an assist and a steal...Freshmen Jessica Pongonis, Kathleen Fitzpatrick and Geena Gomez each played versus the Patriots.
