Welcome to the Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball Tipoff for the 2021-22 Season. Today, we feature the George Mason Patriots.
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A special for atlantic10.com, by Vicki Friedman (@ladyswish)
Coach: Vanessa Blair-Lewis: 293-235 in 22 years of coaching; first year at George Mason
Last Year: 3-19 overall, 0-14 Atlantic 10; lost 82-56 to George Washington in the first round of the A-10 Championship
They’ll Miss: Graduated senior Daijah Jefferson (9 ppg, 7.4 rpg).
Great to Have Back: Marika Korpinen, 5-9 grad student forward, returning leader in scoring (9.3 ppg) and assists (47); Tamia Lawhorne, 6-2 junior forward, who was limited to just 10 games last season but produced a pair of 20-plus point games as a freshman; Jazmyn Doster, 6-2 junior center, 6.1 rpg, seventh in the A-10 with 53 offensive boards, team-high 27 blocks; Taylor Jameson, 5-6 sophomore guard, 5.7 ppg, team leader in steals; Jordan Wakefield, 6-0 junior guard, 6.4 ppg, 3.9 rpg.
Newbies of Note: South Florida transfer Angelee Rodriguez, a 6-2 forward/center who has started for Puerto Rico's national team since age 16; Bethune-Cookman transfer Amaya Scott, a 6-1 forward who was named 2020-21 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year before Bethune-Cookman canceled its season a year ago due to COVID-19. Scott is 229 points away from 1,000 for her career; Illinois transfer senior J-Naya Ephraim, a 5-9 guard who started 32 games in three years for the Fighting Illini; Bethune-Cookman transfer Jayla Adams, who has had to sit out the past two seasons (transfer rule, season cancellation at Bethune) after a promising rookie year at Florida Atlantic.
On the Schedule: The Patriots play just one game at home before Dec. 1, opening with consecutive road games at Florida International and Loyola (Md). That Dec. 1 matchup is versus Florida.
The Bottom Line: The program hired a winner in Vanessa Blair-Lewis, who’s looking to transform George Mason into an Atlantic 10 contender. She’s got a mix of veterans and transfers hungry to return to the floor and start anew.
A Look at the Patriots
That kid in the candy store is Vanessa Blair-Lewis, eager to be close to her roots and ecstatic to set foot into a gym again after not having a season a year ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blair-Lewis became George Mason’s ninth head coach after 13 seasons at Bethune-Cookman, which advanced to its first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2019. The Wildcats canceled their entire season last year — Blair-Lewis was so excited to be back in the gym, she could barely sleep the night before the Patriots’ first practice.
“The last game I coached was in March 2020,” she said. “George Mason is so welcoming; it’s been family, like just like what I left at Bethune-Cookman.”
Blair-Lewis is a native of Largo, Md., a 40-minute drive away if Beltway traffic cooperates. She played there under her father and is thrilled to return to her roots, the DMV area she considers a hotbed for recruiting.
“It’s good to be back home,” Blair-Lewis said. “I grew up just across the bridge from Mason. My dad was a coach at Largo for 20 years. I remember coming to the arena and touring Mason. Coming back home has been overwhelming. Every day my husband asks if my heart stops racing. Every single day I’m so excited to be here.”
The four-time MEAC Coach of the Year had six winning seasons for Bethune-Cookman, a program that had no winning tradition prior to her arrival.
Following Blair-Lewis to the Patriots: former Bethune assistant Niki Washington along with 6-1 forward Amaya Scott and 5-6 guard Jayla Adams.
Scott led the MEAC in field-goal percentage as a junior and was tied for fifth in the league in scoring (15.9 ppg). She’s played the 2, 3, 4 and 5 at times for the Wildcats.
“Every year she’s been on the team, she won a championship,” Blair-Lewis said. “The biggest thing she’s brought to this program is winning ways. She knows that and she operates in a winning vein. There’s no excuses with her. We’re looking to her for her offense and her rebounding ability.”
Scott’s athleticism makes her a highlight reel that should delight Patriots fans.
Adams, an explosive lefty guard with three-point range, played at Florida Atlantic two years ago but then spent two years at Bethune-Cookman without playing a game. Not surprisingly, she seems just as fired up about kicking off her George Mason experience as her coach.
"We have 24-hour access to the gym and I cannot keep her out of there," Blair-Lewis said.
Leading scorer Marika Korpinen returns for another year and has already impressed her new coach with her work ethic.
“She has to change her shirt like twice in practice because she sweats so much,” she said. “She’s infectious. She really is.”
Also helping set the tireless worker tone is point guard Taylor Jameson, whose already-excellent speed figures to be enhanced by improved conditioning.
“In the weight room, she is one fierce competitor,” Blair-Lewis said. “I’m really pleased with her competitiveness, her drive, her encouragement to the other players and her welcoming a new system.”
Tamia Langhorne, also back, can play multiple positions and shoot from beyond the arc.
“She has a lot of tools in her bag,” Blair-Lewis said.
Center Jazmyn Doster brings good size and some versatility. “She watches films all the time and she almost presents herself like a point guard on the floor,” Blair-Lewis said. “I’ve never had a post player talk that much on the floor. I’m encouraged to see her confidence grow outside of the block.”
The Patriots added transfers J-Naya Ephraim from Illinois, a slashing guard who brings positive energy, and Angelee Rodriguez from South Florida, whose ample experience from the Puerto Rican national team will be a plus.
George Mason did not win a conference game last year. The trying season fuels these upperclassmen, who want to go out on a high note.
“We were picked 14th,” Blair-Lewis said. “We have nowhere to go but up.”