ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. — When George Mason center Natalie Butler’s collegiate career is over, her year in the Atlantic 10 will boost her legacy significantly.
Being on a national championship team is impressive. Needing 15 rebounds a night to match your NCAA-leading average is phenomenal.
At the conclusion of Wednesday’s game against St. Bonaventure at the Reilly Center, the only intrigue was if Butler, a graduate transfer from the dominant UConn Huskies, would reach the 15-board standard.
The 6-foot-5 Butler accomplished the goal, corralling 16 rebounds to go along with 22 points as the Patriots won 76-63 to improve to 17-6, 6-3 in the Atlantic 10. The Bonnies fell to 7-16, 2-8 in the league.
Bona welcomed back another member of its team after an extended injury layoff, as freshman forward Abigail Johnson played her first game since Dec. 21.
Johnson, who had been dealing with a shoulder injury, had an unenviable matchup in her return and was charged with four fouls in 13 minutes of play.
“It was kinda funny, I joked with her before: ‘Hey, welcome back, you’re gonna guard Natalie Butler,’” Bonnies coach Jesse Fleming said. “It was tough. That’s where she got some fouls right away… I thought the moving screen call was tough on her to get her fourth foul. That kind of got her out of the game where she didn’t play much to finish the game.
“She’s been back in three practices… so she did some good things, she did some bad things. She’s only gonna get better from here.”
SBU forward Arielle Harvey had a career night, scoring 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including making four of her six three-point attempts.
The Bonnies had another slow third quarter, getting outscored 25-16 in what was essentially the game-defining period. Harvey scored nine of those 16 points to lessen the blow and keep the game competitive.
Mariah Ruff scored 17 points and Mckenna Maycock added 11, but Harvey’s performance was the most notable for the brown and white.
“It’s finally coming out; it’s what we recruited Arielle for,” Fleming commented. “Arielle’s a scorer. Arielle can create her own shot, Arielle can make threes, Arielle can get fouled. And we’ve been begging her and begging her and begging her. She’s a junior college player so I think it’s taken her some time to get some comfort. Now she’s starting to show it; she’s a very talented player. The stuff that she does in practice and workouts is special, absolutely special.
“I’m not surprised, and I thought she could’ve had 30. She had a few more looks that could’ve went down. She’s the only kid we probably have on our roster that can be guarded and make a shot, and that’s something that’s special.”
The group’s potential was evident in the first and fourth quarters; it combined to outscore the Patriots 35-34 in those periods. However, the result wasn’t there against a skilled offensive team that featured four double-figure scorers: Butler with 22, Sarah Kaminski with 16, Nicole Cardano-Hillary with 13 and Jacy Bolton with 11.
GMU was red-hot in the third quarter, making 10 of 15 shots after making seven of 17 in the second. The paint was the obvious advantage, as the Patriots outscored the Bonnies 36-10 down low, but the Patriots also had more points off turnovers (12-5), second-chance points (18-5) and fast break points (4-0).
In nearly every statistical category, Mason did a standout job.
“I thought we played very hard, especially in the first half,” Fleming assessed. “I thought we competed on the boards, I thought we really moved the ball. We looked to attack. We weren’t always perfect, but I did like our energy, I liked our swagger.
“We couldn’t make a shot in the second quarter. There’s been other times during the year where we haven’t made a shot because we weren’t running our offense, (but) I thought we were actually executing offense. Got some looks in transition, in the halfcourt and we just weren’t able to knock them down. And then probably the beginning of the third quarter was the worst we played in a stretch in the game.
“They got it to 12 or 13 and it was over from there.”
