The George Mason High School girls basketball team captured another road victory on Tuesday, this one a 39-35 win over a perennially strong Strasburg team, to improve its record to 2-1 in the Bull Run District and 7-8 overall.
“Last night’s victory at Strasburg was a big win for us,” Mason Head Coach Bill Broderick said. “To win on the road in the Bull Run, especially at Strasburg against a team that is well coached, says a lot about how far our inexperienced team has come over the last two months. I am really proud of their hard work and dedication.”
Bailey Walton topped the scoring ledger for the Mustangs with 12 points and five rebounds, while Annie Zweighaft finished in double-digits with 10 points.
“We had several people step up for us last night as 10 players saw playing time, but I was really impressed with the overall game that Annie Zweighaft (two rebounds, two assists) put together for us,” Broderick said. “She is always asked to guard the best player on the opposing team, which is more than enough of a task, but she was really effective on the offensive end as well, taking good shots and knocking them down.”
Broderick also praised the hard-nosed play of point guard Rachel Kazman, who withstood Strasburg’s pressure and finished the game with four assists against just two turnovers, as well as three rebounds. Ashley Thompson led the Mustangs on the boards with 13 to go with her eight points.
If there is such a thing as a good loss, the Mustangs experienced it last Thursday night when they nearly toppled defending district champion Clarke County. After falling behind early, the Mustangs closed the gap and had an open shot to win the game on the final possession but could not get it to fall, eventually succumbing 51-47.
“I don’t think we did anything special to make our comeback versus Clarke,” Broderick said. “We just settled down and started executing better against their full-court, man pressure to get some easy baskets.”
The Eagles lost one game all of last season, that being the state championship.
Walton again led the Mason scoring with 23 points, while Zweighaft finished with nine. Ashley Thompson and Kim Kenny finished the game with five points each to go with seven and six rebounds respectively. Mayssa Chehata scored four points to round out the Mustangs’ point total.
While the team showed great poise in breaking the Clarke County press, Mason’s shortcoming came from the foul line, missing 20 of 34 free throws in the game.
The Mustangs will look to build off of both of these results this week when they face Rappahannock at home on Thursday and then traveling to Manassas Park for a road game next Tuesday. Both contests are set to begin at 7:30 p.m.