St. Joseph’s suffers tough loss to George Mason in Atlantic 10 championship game, 73-58
The Hawks will have to wait to see if their efforts this weekend were enough to earn an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.
After an overtime win against Rhode Island in the quarterfinals and a buzzer beater against Richmond in the semis, St. Joseph’s had to dig deep for just one more game.
But the momentum the Hawks were riding wasn’t enough to secure the Atlantic 10 title, as they fell to George Mason, 73-58, in Glen Allen, Va.
The fourth-seeded St. Joe’s (23-9, 12-6 A-10) beat the third-seeded George Mason (27-5, 14-4) twice during the regular season, but the Patriots came out on ready to outwork St. Joe’s, something coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis said they lacked in their first two meetings. This “outworking” mindset resulted in the program’s first A-10 championship.
“Today was about being faithful with 40 for 40 minutes,” Blair-Lewis said. “That means every loose ball, every rebound, we didn’t do a great job with that. But everything we have to do to beat this team, we have to do it, and we have to be faithful.”
Sunday’s matchup marked the first time since 2018 that the Hawks played for the conference championship, last winning it in 2013. To get to the final, they defeated No. 5 seed Rhode Island and No. 1 seed Richmond. Despite coming up short, coach Cindy Griffin said she’s proud of the season and her team overall.
“I thought our game plan was good coming in, I thought the kids were definitely locked in coming off two really thrilling games to lead us up to this point. Very proud of the position that we put ourselves in,” Griffin said. “This is something that our team had a goal to, to win a championship. We came up obviously a little short. But overall, I think our body of work this year, especially this weekend, has been phenomenal.”
George Mason took the lead early in the first quarter, marking the first time the Hawks trailed against the Patriots all season. Even after a 7-0 run to tie the game heading into the half, St. Joe’s was never able to hold onto a lead during the game, due in part to George Mason’s stingy defense in combination with a dominant showing on the offensive end of the court.
And once again, the third quarter was unkind to the Hawks. The Patriots went on a 12-0 run through the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth, securing their first double-digit lead of the game, which the Hawks were never able to fully erase. The Patriots shot 90% from the field in the third quarter.
“I think they had a little bit more momentum from a shooting standpoint,” Griffin said. “We knew they had a lot of offensive punch from all spots. And we thought that we weathered the storm going into halftime. But there was certainly a second wave, that tidal wave, and the third that we just couldn’t recover from.”
While Mackenzie Smith led St. Joe’s with 19 points, Laura Ziegler followed with 18, her best offensive performance of the tournament. But it didn’t match the damage of George Mason’s Paula Suarez who the Hawks were unable to contain.
Suarez finished with a game-high 23 points, along with six rebounds and six assists.
Next, the Patriots will wait to see where they’re heading with their automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament during the selection show next Sunday. As for the Hawks, they’ll have to wait to see if their efforts this weekend were enough to move them up from their first four teams out position, or if their season will continue with a WBIT berth.