George Washington University

Dec. 21, 2009

GW Notes at Mason | GameTracker | Live Video

FAIRFAX, VA - The George Washington women's basketball team will look to snap its six-game losing streak when it visits Orange Line foe George Mason at Patriot Center Tuesday at 5:00 pm.

GW (2-6) will look to make it a Battle of the Orange Line sweep after the Colonials' men's team defeated Mason, 66-49, at Smith Center Dec. 2. GW's Foggy Bottom campus and Mason's Fairfax campus are along the DC Metro's Orange Line.

GW has dropped two straight and three of the last four in the series with George Mason, including a 63-57 loss at Smith Center in the most recent meeting in Dec. 2002. GW still enjoys a 7-2 edge at Smith Center, but is just 3-4 on the road against Mason, with all seven games decided by nine points or less and average margin of just 5.3 points.

GW's current six-game slide is the longest for the program since the 1988-89 season. The program's longest losing streak is seven games during the 1981-82 campaign.

The Colonials have been idle for 14 days following a 56-47 loss to Marshall at Smith Center Dec. 8. A makeup date for GW's scheduled Sunday game against Mount St. Mary's, postponed by the blizzard that struck the DC Metro area, has yet to be determined.

The Colonials have been solid defensively their last two outings, allowing just 59 points per game, but have averaged just 45 in losses to Auburn and Marshall. GW surrendered a season-low 56 points against Marshall, but struggled through a near 11-minute scoring drought to end the game in its 56-47 loss. Sophomore Tiana Myers led the Colonials in scoring for the second straight game with 14 points.

George Mason (6-3) will have been idle for 10 days heading into Tuesday's meeting with GW. The Patriots are coming off a 62-55 victory over Howard Dec. 12, their sixth victory in as many tries at Patriot Center this season, which is a new program record.

GW men's basketball head coach Karl Hobbs' daughter, RaShauna, is a senior guard averaging 3.0 points and 1.3 rebounds per 11 minutes a game at George Mason. Karl will be unable to attend his daughter's contest Tuesday because the GW men's team will battle East Carolina in Greenville, NC, at 7:00 pm that night. GW Athletics Director Jack Kvancz served in the same capacity at George Mason from 1983-95.

Brittany Poindexter leads GMU in scoring at 13.6 points per game, one of three players to average double figures, on a team-best 59.2 percent from the field. Ashleigh Braxton, who scored a career-high 20 points in the victory over Howard, is second on the team with 10.6 points per game while hitting more than half of Mason's three pointers (14-of-26 3fgm). Amber Easter chips in 10.3 points per game and team-high 7.6 boards along with Angelee LaTouche.

Mason struggled to a 4-26 record in Jeri Porter's first season as head coach in 2008-09. Prior to joining the Patriots, Porter went 93-85 in six seasons at Radford and 64-43 in four years at North Alabama. Upon Porter leaving Radford, former GW assistant coach and Athletics Hall of Fame member Tajama Abraham Ngongba took over as head coach of the Highlanders.