The last few weeks of the season have not been kind to the No. 17 Georgetown women’s basketball squad (21-9, 9-7 Big East). Mired in a massive shooting slump, the Blue and Gray dropped four of their last five contests and plummeted to eighth place in the Big East. Thursday, however, brought some good news to McDonough Arena.
Two Lady Hoyas were honored Thursday as the Big East all-conference teams were announced. Sophomore guard Sugar Rodgers was a unanimous selection to the first team after averaging 18.2 points per game and 2.5 steals per game – both good for second in the conference – and leading her team in scoring in 21 of 30 contests. Senior guard Monica McNutt, the team’s second leading scorer at 10.6 points per game, earned an all-conference spot of her own as an honorable mention.
“Honestly, that’s a shocker,” McNutt said of her award. “It’s funny, I was thinking about that the other day and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m not what I was last year statistically, we aren’t what we were last year statistically, I wonder if anybody’s going to clean up anything?'”
Both players will have to be on top of their games this weekend as Georgetown travels to Hartford for the Big East tournament. The Lady Hoyas escaped their late-season slide with the eighth seed, earning them a bye in the first round.
Today Georgetown will take on No. 9 seed Syracuse, who beat No. 16 seed Seton Hall Friday.
The Blue and Gray will be favored against the Orange, but they have not shot better than 40 percent from the field in their last four games. Last Saturday, they nearly defeated No. 1 Connecticut but failed to convert on the offensive end late in the game. Exhausted from their slugfest with the reigning national champs, they lost to usual doormat South Florida in a shocking 60-55 upset Monday night.
“We put out a hell of an effort against Connecticut, and I think we were a little bit drained going into South Florida,” McNutt said. “We held them to 38 points and beat them by 29 here, so we were a little lackluster, to say the least.”
The onus for any team’s offensive slump falls on the shoulders of its superstar, and Georgetown is no exception. Rodgers, who accounts for almost 27 percent of the team’s total shots, is 30-of-94 over the team’s last five games. The spotlight will be on the star sophomore to elevate her game in Hartford.
“I’ve been getting shots up before and after practice,” Rodgers said. “It’s been rough, but it’s the end of the season so I’ve been trying to work out more.”
As for McNutt, the seasoned senior has not seen a win in the Big East tournament in her relatively successful three years on the Hilltop. After shocking the conference with a 16-game win streak last season, the Blue and Gray fell to Rutgers in double overtime in their first tournament game.
“As a senior, I’ve never won a Big East tournament game,” McNutt said. “So I know I need to bring that sense of urgency to my teammates.”
But while they lack experience and are far from the hottest team in the conference right now, the Lady Hoyas remain confident of their chances in the tournament. Williams-Flournoy has made some coaching adjustments over the last few days, tweaking the team’s stagnant halfcourt offense while still emphasizing the role of the fastbreak.
“We’ve talked about our offense a little bit, because it’s not so much just making shots, sometimes we’ve become very stagnant, just standing around,” Williams-Flournoy said. “But there was also times when we had opportunities to push the ball, and we didn’t push the ball. They have to understand that live-ball turnovers are transition buckets for us.”
Georgetown tips off against Syracuse at noon today.
