Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Duquesne women's basketball team closed out its regular season Saturday afternoon with a 65-48 setback to George Mason inside UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse. With the loss, the Dukes finish the regular season at 11-18 (.379) overall and 4-14 (.222) in Atlantic 10 play.

POINT OF EMPHASIS
Duquesne came out sharp, knocking down three of its first six shots to build an early 8-2 lead. Junior Reina Green ignited the surge with a triple and a layup. After a Patriot response, Green added a free throw, and freshman Raevin Washington finished the stretch with a layup to keep the Dukes in front. George Mason, however, flipped the momentum late in the quarter. The Patriots closed the final 5:16 on a 13-1 run, turning a deficit into a 15-9 advantage by the end of the first. Redshirt sophomore Gabby Grantham-Medley opened the second quarter with a jumper to stop the bleeding, but George Mason answered with a decisive 10-2 run, pushing its lead to 25-13 with just under six minutes left in the half. After a two-minute scoring drought, freshman Alexis Bordas knocked down a jumper to briefly slow the surge, yet the Patriots maintained control and carried a 34-17 lead into the break.

QUOTABLE
"In a season where we had to find small wins and small victories, I think there's some positives that come out of a game that was a double figure point difference," head coach Dan Burt said. "If you just go into third and fourth quarter alone, it was a tie game. We would cut it to 10, and then make a mistake, and they'd make us pay. So, we can have our small wins, but really, what it is, is that we're playing the best team in the Atlantic 10. Congratulations to George Mason. I think they're incredibly well coached. Vanessa, their head coach, is a friend, and I think that she has done a great job there, and I think her whole staff has. They're a very good coaching staff, and they make you pay. Moving forward, we will be back to where our usual standard is, after this A-10 tournament and I'm really excited to work with this group again. I told them in the locker room that I don't think that I've had a more connected, optimistic, positive team in my 19 years here. Our future is bright, but our future has to have some things happen, and we've got to grow, and I believe that we will."

REGULAR SEASON CONCLUDED
Both teams struggled to find their rhythm coming out of the break, combining to shoot just 4-of-18 from the field to start the second half. As the third quarter wore on, sophomore Harriet Ford knocked down a pair of free throws, and sophomore Mackenzie Blackford followed with a triple to trim the deficit to 39-29 with just over three minutes to play. The teams then traded the next 10 points, with all five of Duquesne's coming from sophomore Fatou Sane. Despite the push, George Mason maintained control and carried a 46-34 advantage into the final frame. The fourth quarter was evenly played, with the Dukes cutting the deficit to 10 on multiple occasions. However, that was as close as they would come, as the Patriots shot an efficient 53.3 percent (8-of-15) from the field over the final 10 minutes to secure the win.

DOUBLE TROUBLE
A pair of Dukes recorded double-doubles on Saturday, led by Gabby Grantham-Medley. The redshirt sophomore notched her second career double-double with a team-high 12 points and 10 rebounds, adding two assists and two steals. She shot an efficient 5-of-7 (71.4 percent) from the floor, marking her ninth game in double figures this season and her second outing with 10 or more rebounds. Reina Green also secured her second career double-double, finishing with 11 points and 11 rebounds while dishing out three assists. She added a steal and knocked down a pair of triples against the Patriots. The performance represented her 11th game in double figures and her second contest with double-digit rebounds.

INSIDE THE STAT SHEET
Alexis Bordas tallied nine points to go along with two assists and a triple, while Harriet Ford added six points and three rebounds. Mackenzie Blackford dished out a team-high four assists in the contest. George Mason placed three players in double figures, led by Zahirah Walton's 16-point, 13-rebound double-double. Kennedy Harris contributed 15 points and four steals, and Jada Brown added 14 points with five assists. The Patriots narrowly won the rebounding battle, 43-41, and held a 22-18 advantage in points in the paint.

UP NEXT
Duquesne now turns its attention to the Atlantic 10 Championships in Henrico, Va., where it will await its seeding and opponent in the coming days.