The No. 18 Georgetown women’s basketball team (20-7, 8-5 Big East) went into Chicago Sunday aiming to take down a top-10 team for the third time this year. No. 7 DePaul (25-3, 12-1 Big East), however, had different plans.

The Blue Demons remained undefeated at home and handed the Lady Hoyas their biggest loss of the season, an 82-57 shellacking that sent the Blue and Gray into a four-way tie for the fourth-place spot in the cutthroat Big East.

“DePaul is a very experienced team,” senior guard Monica McNutt said. “There’s a reason they’re sitting at tied for second in the conference. They executed well, they took advantage of every mistake that we made.”

Though Georgetown owns some impressive wins over top-tier teams this year – West Virginia and Tennessee come to mind – DePaul proved Sunday that it is simply on a different level. The Lady Hoyas led 10-6 early in the first half before allowing the Blue Demons to reel off 16 straight points, many of which came on layups. Georgetown never regained the lead.

“We did not play extremely well, and I think every time they shot a three it deflated us even more,” Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “When we started the game, giving them two threes off the bat, that did not set the tone very well.”

The Blue Demons’ balanced attack picked apart the Lady Hoyas’ usually formidable defense with ease and converted with incredible efficiency. The hosts connected on an outrageous 16-of-24 attempts in the second half en route to a 53.7 percent shooting day. DePaul’s scoring was about as balanced as possible; five players scored in double figures and the team racked up 22 assists.

“DePaul has five fifth-year seniors, so they understand the game whereas we’re still learning a little bit,” said McNutt, the only senior on the Georgetown roster.

And while stopping the home team was clearly a Herculean task, Georgetown did little to further its cause on the offensive end. The Lady Hoyas shot 30.2 percent for the game, highlighted by star guard Sugar Rodgers’s abysmal 7-of-24 afternoon.

“Instead of us slowing down, trusting our offense and regrouping – even slowing down on our shots as individuals – we let them frazzle us a little bit. We were a little sped up,” McNutt said.

Georgetown’s rough shooting night made things easier for the Blue Demons on both ends of the court because the Lady Hoyas’ press is most effective after made baskets. Missed threes and long rebounds led to fewer opportunities to force turnovers in the backcourt, a key facet of Georgetown’s game plan.

“We [weren’t] able to score. The times we were able to set up our press, we forced them into turnovers or we were able to set our traps,” Williams-Flournoy said. “So when you can’t score, you can’t set up your press, and that really hurt us.”

The Blue and Gray will need to refocus quickly if they want a chance at the coveted fourth-place spot in the Big East. The conference’s top four teams earn double-byes in the conference tournament, and Georgetown’s two-game losing streak has wrapped the team up in a tie with Marquette, Rutgers and Louisville for the position.

The Lady Hoyas play at home against Pittsburgh tonight night. The Panthers, who have been mediocre this year, should provide an opportunity for the team to regain its confidence before Saturday’s showdown with No.1 Connecticut.

“We’ve got to take care of Pittsburgh. Every team in the Big East wants to win, so we’ve got to come out and play hard. Hopefully if we do what we’re supposed to do at home, we’ll have some momentum against Connecticut on Saturday,” McNutt said. “It’s just a matter of us being perfect. We’ve got to seek perfection against them.”