Heading into the season’s third week of action, the Georgetown women’s basketball team (1-2) is hoping to put recent losses and off-court drama behind it. After losing two consecutive games and dealing with the unexpected transfer of freshman forward Shayla Cooper, the Hoyas will look to overcome these setbacks when they play host to Princeton on Saturday.

After the first three games this season, Georgetown’s weaknesses are obvious. The Hoyas have struggled to maintain possession, averaging more than 24 turnovers a game.

“We need to take care of the basketball,” Head Coach Jim Lewis said. “It is against good teams, and no disrespect to those teams, but some of the turnovers have been unforced or have been because of our poor decisions. Those numbers need to go down.”

The Blue and Gray have also struggled on defense. Thus far this season, the Hoyas’ opponents have averaged 77 points per game.

“We need to focus on … defense overall, but particularly our transition defense and our interior defense,” Lewis said. “Teams have scored too many points in transition and at the bucket. … [We need] to become a better overall rebounding team on both ends of the floor.”

Georgetown will look to improve in these areas against Princeton, though downing the Tigers will be no easy task for the Hoyas. Last season, Princeton finished the season with a 22-7 record and won the Ivy League championship for the fourth consecutive season; it is the favorite to win it again this year.

Princeton is coming off of a victory over Rider on Tuesday. Led by guard Blake Dietrick, who had 15 points, the Tigers established an early lead over the Broncos and never looked back as they cruised to their 75-62 win.

“Princeton is a great program,” Lewis said. “It is not that they are just a good team; overall, they are a good program that competes for championships each year. We know that and we have a lot of respect for them. They play very intelligent basketball with good athletes and are well coached.”

Georgetown will turn to freshman center Natalie Butler to lead the team against a small Princeton team. In her first three collegiate games, Butler has dominated, averaging 16.3 points and 13.7 rebounds per game. Her performances against South Dakota State and California earned her Big East rookie of the week honors.

“She sets high standards for herself, and … she works towards accomplishing them,” Lewis said. “Her attitude, her effort and her leadership as a freshman are outstanding. We have set some goals for her and she continues to set an example. … I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the year she leads the nation in field goal percentage, as well as rebounding.”

Georgetown will look to take advantage of her presence by using Butler more in the low post. Giving more touches to Butler in the post will give her more opportunities to score and will also open the court up for the other Hoyas, according to Lewis.

“We run most of our offense through Natalie, but it is not just [her] shot attempts that dictate success of a team,” Lewis said. “If you throw the ball to Natalie and you cut, you will probably get a layup. She has a good sense of finding cutters and weak side shooters. The more touches Natalie has, the better our team will be.”

With the departure of Cooper, who decided to transfer from Georgetown, Lewis expects freshmen Jade Martin and Faith Woodard to have increased roles.

“Faith Woodard and Jade Martin will successfully play the wing position that they are naturally suited for,” Lewis said. “The beauty of [Martin and Woodard] is that they give us a different dimension. Between the two, we have an excellent young duo of wing players, and I like their tenacity on defense as well.”

Woodard, Martin and the rest of the Hoyas will look to get back on track against the Tigers at McDonough Arena. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.