Women’s basketball loses third straight game

The University of Rhode Island women’s basketball team suffered their third straight Atlantic 10 Conference loss, 68-65, when George Mason University came to the Ryan Center this past Saturday.

Rhode Island was led by sophomore guard Charise Wilson, who finished with her season-high 30 points and a career-high of six 3-pointers, which made her the first player in URI history to make 60 3-pointers in two different seasons. She now has her eyes set on the single-season record, just one away from the milestone. Wilson also tallied five assists, four steals and four rebounds. Senior forward Samantha Tabakman contributed 17 points and six boards, and sophomore guard Dominique Ward added nine points and seven rebounds.

“Losses like this are tough, but it’s games like this that we learn from,” Wilson said. “We can’t let our frustration get to us, [we need to] learn from it and move on.”

George Mason’s inside presence and bench scoring efforts were enough to narrowly upstage Wilson’s scoring outburst. The Patriots’ Kristi Mokube had 19 points and 10 rebounds in 30 minutes off the bench. The Rams were outrebounded 41-28, and outscored by the GMU bench, 35-3.

“We still have a lot of basketball left to play,” head coach Daynia La Force said.  “We need to go back, watch our film and learn from this. I thought our depth was tested, especially with their inside presence and rebounding. That hurt us.”

URI led by as many as 14 points and held a 31-23 first half lead, but George Mason responded in the second half with a 23-8 run. Wilson scored 14 of her 30 points in the fourth quarter for the Rams, and they were able to cut the deficit to single-digits on two separate occasions.

Although Rhode Island was unable to come back from GMU’s second-half rally, La Force has been impressed by the play of her young sophomore backcourt. “Charise and Dominique are important pieces to our program,” she said. “We hope they can continue their level of play, scoring, as it’s rare to see underclassmen score the way they do in our conference.”

Rhode Island will next face Virginia Commonwealth University, Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Ryan Center.

“VCU is going to be tough,” La Force said. “They have as much swag as any other team we have faced in the conference, we need to rebound mentally and be ready to fight.”