Despite a dominant senior day performance from graduate guard Kelsey Ransom, the Georgetown University women’s basketball team (11-18, 4-14 Big East) fell in the final minute after failing to overcome an early deficit to the Providence College Friars (13-18, 6-12 Big East) March 1. The game marked the seventh straight loss for the Hoyas and an end to Big East regular season play ahead of the Big East tournament next week.
Providence secured the tipoff and missed a layup to start the game. Georgetown missed a possession of their own, handing the ball back to Providence before forcing a turnover. This turnover led graduate guard Siobhan Ryan to sink a 3-pointer at the 8:25 mark, putting the Hoyas in the lead. The Friars quickly responded, putting up a successful layup and jumper to put themselves in the lead 4-3 at the 7:30 mark. Georgetown then missed a pass, spurring a backcourt violation and turnover that allowed Providence to drain another jumper from in the paint and a subsequent 3-pointer, putting the Friars up 9-3 before the Hoyas called their first timeout less than four minutes into the game.
The timeout did not prove successful at regrouping the Hoyas’ offense, and the Friars put up another 5 points, extending their lead to 14-3 as they completed a 14-0 run less than five minutes into play. With 4:36 left in the first quarter, first-year guard Khadee Hession ended the Hoyas’ drought, sinking a 2-point jumper. Ransom secured a rebound to follow and put up a layup, clinching an and-1 to put the Hoyas within two possessions of the Friars, 14-8. Providence retaliated, putting up another 6 points to extend their lead to 20-8. Junior guard Victoria Rivera secured her own rebound on the quarter’s final possession, and put in a successful layup to end the quarter with Georgetown down 20-10.
Heading into the second quarter, the Hoyas quickly put up the first points of the quarter with a 3-pointer from Hession and a senior guard Ariel Jenkins put-back to cut the Hoya deficit in half a little over a minute in. Georgetown and Providence battled it out for much of the second quarter, with fouls, missed shots and turnovers on both ends. With 3:22 left to play in the half, first-year forward Alexia Araujo-Dagba landed a layup to bring the Hoyas within a single possession of the Friars, 28-25. A foul by Araujo-Dagba saw Providence enter the bonus with 2:00 left in the half, and successful shots from the charity stripe saw the Friars inch ahead again to end the half up 32-27.
The Hoyas scored the first points of the third quarter, once again, to bring them within a possession of the Friars. The third quarter saw much of the same back-to-back action as the second, with a slew of turnovers, fouls and missed attempts on both ends and Ransom steals on the Hoya side. The third quarter ended with a Providence bucket, which put them up 48-42.
Unlike the first three quarters, Providence sank the first points of the final quarter with a successful jump shot. Successful free throws from both first-year Jayden McBride and Ransom saw the Hoyas claw their way back towards the Friars. A 3-pointer from Ransom saw Georgetown back within a basket of Providence with 4:10 left to play, 58-55. A Ransom layup followed to bring the Hoyas within a point of the Friars with 3:16 to go. A Providence jump shot put the Friars back up by 3 points as tensions continued to mount.
The two teams traded off baskets as the Hoyas found themselves within 3, 1 and 3 points of the Friars, respectively. With 1:20 left to play, Hession pulled up for the 3-pointer, which was followed by the Friars, securing 3 attempts from the charity stripe. She sank all of them, leaving the Hoyas within 2 points of the Friars and losing 64-62. With 21.5 seconds left on the clock, Georgetown secured possession and had the chance to win the game as the Hoyas called a timeout to strategize. A Hession missed pass caused Georgetown to lose the ball to Providence with 10.1 seconds left to play, as Ransom did not touch the ball in what would have been the Hoyas’ most important possession of the day. The Friars inbounded the ball, and Ransom was forced to foul out with 8 seconds left in an attempt at winning the ball back. Providence sank two free throws to end the game with the win, 66-62.
Despite their best efforts, the Hoyas’ strong defense could not overcome their lacking offense. Georgetown forced a dramatic 18 turnovers from Providence compared to the Friars forced 14. However, the Hoyas could not capitalize off these turnovers, scoring 12 points off of them compared to the Friars’ 26. Georgetown forced 8 steals compared to Providence’s 3, with half belonging to Ransom. Despite the clear defensive prowess of the Hoyas, the Friars ultimately prevailed as a result of the Hoyas incomparable shooting success rates. Providence shot 48.1% from the floor and 29.4% from the 3-point range, compared to Georgetown’s 32.8% and 21.1%. Even though the Hoyas outperformed the Friars in foul shots, sinking 16-of-16 from the charity stripe, free goals could not make up for the deficit from their other shots.
Coming off her eighth Big East weekly honor roll accolade of the season, Ransom led the game with a dominant performance, sinking 26 points and securing 10 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. Jenkins secured an additional 10 points for the Hoyas, followed by McBride with 9, 7 of which came from free throws, and Hession with 8. This, however, did not prove enough to overcome Providence’s early 14-0 run.
The Hoyas secured the 10th seed in the Big East tournament with their performance today and will again face the seventh seeded Friars on Friday, March 7 at 1:30 p.m. on the Big East Digital Network. Georgetown will look to overcome their seven-game losing streak and enter the Big East tournament with a win as they continue to seek to secure a victory that was almost theirs today.
