Richmond uses defense to beat George Mason

When the buzzer sounded Sunday afternoon, the scoreboard in the Robins Center favored the Spiders heavily. Not only had Richmond's women's basketball team routed George Mason, but the Spiders limited the A-10 conference’s top scorer to just 10 points, her lowest total of the season.

Coming into the game, Taylor Brown was averaging 23.5 points per game for George Mason, which was fifth best in NCAA Division I. Thanks to phenomenal defense by Lauren Tolson, Janelle Hubbard and Kylie Murphee, Brown didn’t crack double-figure scoring until well into the second half and shot just 3-of-15 from the field.

“I didn’t think coming into the game that we could guard Taylor Brown,” Richmond coach Michael Shafer admitted after the game, a testament to Brown’s exceptional scoring abilities. “I thought for the most part we did a really good job of making her into a one-directional player and when we did that we were able to get help and contest.”

Tolson and Hubbard led the Spiders in scoring with 18 points each, both hitting two 3-pointers. Liz Brown added 15 points and Liv Healy had 12 points and six rebounds. Gen Okoro rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds. All 13 Spiders who dressed saw the floor in the 77-49 win.

The Patriots’ offense was a completely different story. Despite the worst performance of her season, Taylor Brown proved to be George Mason’s only viable scoring option, regardless of her inconsistency. Her 10 points led the team, and she chipped in four assists and four rebounds as well. Despite her ability to penetrate and find teammates, no other Patriot managed double figures in scoring.

The Spiders held a huge advantage from the free-throw line, making 21 of 23 shots. The Patriots shot a paltry 30 percent on their foul shots and no player aside from Brown consistently attacked Richmond’s interior defense or drew fouls.

The Spiders also tallied 11 steals, five from Kylie Murphee alone, largely because Shafer had his team play press defense for most of the game. George Mason also committed a few unforced turnovers in the face of Richmond’s intense full-court pressure.

One surprising development was Richmond’s substantial advantage rebounding the ball, something that Shafer acknowledged had been a problem all season. The Spiders out-rebounded the Patriots 41 to 28 and were particularly impressive rebounding at the defensive end, grabbing 12 more rebounds than George Mason.

After beating George Mason (11-7 overall, 3-2 in A-10 play), Richmond (10-7, 2-2) is in eighth place in the conference just four games into its conference schedule. Shafer said he thought his team was moving in the right direction, but pointed out some potential areas for improvement as well.

“I think we can get better executing at the end of the shot clock, and I think we can get better in the post at scoring the ball,” Shafer said, highlighting two points that he thought would come into play late in the season as teams continue to improve at rotating to Richmond’s outside shooters.

Richmond has a chance to join a pack of four teams at 3-2 in the conference on Wednesday when it travels to North Carolina to take on a struggling Davidson team (5-13, 1-4) in another conference game.