Dan Gelfand/The Hoya Senior forward Varda Tamoulianis scored six points in 22 minutes during the Hoyas’ 56-47 first-round loss to the Hokies of Virginia Tech in the conference tournament.

With time expiring on the overhead scoreboards in the Hartford Civic Center, the players’ faces on the Georgetown women’s basketball team conveyed a sense of frustration and disappointment. Despite an earlier lead, the Hoyas had fallen permanently behind the Virginia Tech Hokies, spelling the end of an intermittently strong but generally underwhelming season.

“I’m disappointed, but I’m not frustrated and I’m not upset with the young women,” Head Coach Pat Knapp said.

Finishing 13-15, Georgetown wrapped up its season in the first round of the Big East tournament without a shot at the postseason despite wins over four top-50 RPI teams. One could hardly envy the team’s schedule, facing 10 opponents that would make the NCAA tournament and three more that qualified for the Women’s National Invitation Tournament for a combined 17 games. It was a season of possibilities, with senior forward Rebekkah Brunson leading the team with her indomitable post play, but in the end too many close losses and missed chances added up to a season that came up short of expectations, which were no less than to make the Big Dance.

“That should be our expectation – that’s it. We have to turn it around. We can make a few more shots, we can make a few more stops we can be tougher mentally, and then we’re in that bracket,” Knapp said.

The Hoyas entered the season ranked ninth in the Big East preseason polls. While the team had lost two of its top forwards, Brunson’s continuing maturity and developments and senior forward Varda Tamoulianis would help ease the transition. Junior guard Bethany LeSueur, a transfer from Virginia, promised to strengthen the backcourt by taking some pressure off the starting point guard, junior Mary Lisicky.

A last-minute 67-62 victory over local rival George Washington set a positive tone for the season, as for the third consecutive season Georgetown had managed to upend its highly-touted neighbor. The November games passed by without too much effort, but the team hit its first rough spot in December.

Richmond, which had dispatched Georgetown in the first round of the WNIT last year, handed the team the first loss of the new season when the Hoyas failed to score a buzzer-beater to tie the game, the first of a series of games that would be decided in the final minute. Georgetown added a second loss to the record when Indiana ran away with a win in the second half of the next game.

The Hoyas hoped to establish another winning streak when it crossed the country to the Surf-N-Slam tournament in San Diego in the last week of December, but instead were handed a pair of losses. A surprising loss to San Diego in the first round lead to a matchup with Maryland, which ended with a Terrapin win in overtime.

“We were up by three with a minute to go and we missed four free throws. The players worked hard and wanted to make those shots, and that’s a very minor difference,” Knapp said.

Things looked even worse when Seton Hall embarrassed Georgetown with a 57-46 win in McDonough Gymnasium to kick off conference play. The team showed resilience in a 76-73 victory over Notre Dame four days later when the Fighting Irish surrendered a six-point lead in the final minute.

The Big East provided some heartbreakers and pleasant surprises for the Hoyas. While Georgetown managed to befuddle Connecticut and its legions of fans for much of the game, a second-half drive left the Hoyas with its worse loss of the season, 69-51. Miami stopped its challenger after two overtimes and Rutgers stole a victory with the last play of the game. On the other hand, Virginia Tech was soundly stomped on 70-50 in McDonough while Head Coach Henry Peretta and his Villanova Wildcats were left speechless when their offense deflated in a 53-48 Hoya triumph.

“Our defensive and rebounding skills improved immensely from a year ago,” Knapp said. “We played hard on a regular basis and prepared hard. If we didn’t do that, we wouldn’t be taking BC or Rutgers to the wire or Connecticut for 30-some strong minutes or whoever it is.”

Despite the quality victories, Georgetown stalled out in February. The team’s 10-9 record left it in a precarious position as three tough contests lay ahead that would go a long way in shaping the team’s postseason ambitions. In a rematch with Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., the Irish took revenge with a 66-52 drumming of their opponent. Facing Virginia in its final non-conference showdown, the team let the Cavaliers slip away 52-45 in a flat performance from the free-throw line. The Hoyas hit the bottom with a 68-58 loss to Boston College as the team’s momentum dissipated in the final five minutes.

After that, Georgetown cruised over easier opponents but could not keep up with its elite competition, culminating with repeat losses to Rutgers and Boston College and a 13-14 regular season record.

“What’s the difference between 13 wins and 17 wins?” Knapp said. “I can give you four games right there: Maryland, Rutgers and Miami on the road, and the home game against Richmond. They all came down to a pass, a layup, a shot, a catch. Our performance wasn’t a day-to-day difference; it was a minute-to-minute difference.”

The coup de grace came in the first round of the conference tournament when Georgetown, seeded ninth and true to preseason predictions, failed to put away eight-seeded Virginia Tech. The Hokies bounced back for a 56-47 win to ice any postseason plans for the Hoyas, who had to settle for a below .500 season.

“In the Virginia Tech game, we broke down mentally before we broke down physically. You can’t break down mentally; you have to hang tough,” Knapp said.

Even without the postseason, the team had its share of highlights, starting with Brunson’s continued top-notch performance. She took Big East Defensive Player of the Year honors as well as returning to her spot on the all-Big East First Team. She led the conference in both scoring (20.4 points per game) and rebounding (11.3 rebounds per game). On top of this, she became the first Georgetown female to pull down 1,000 rebounds and finished in second on the Georgetown career scoring list with 1,762 points.

While it was Brunson’s year, having defined her final year with her aggressive style around the basket, she was helped out by Lisicky, who finished with a 12.9 ppg average and, LeSueur, who scored 8.3 ppg and was the second-best rebounder with 5.5 rpg. Lisicky also crossed the 1,000-point threshold and set a new record for three-pointers with 216 for her career. Where the team hurt was in free-throw shooting, where most players failed to hit the 60 percent mark. Offensive output also became a problem as only Brunson and Lisicky could turn in constant double-digit performances. To top it off, the team often struggled to compete for the entire 40 minutes, mentally buckling before the clock expired.

“I know where we fell short, and wasn’t because any lack of effort or preparation or time put in,” Knapp said. “We have seven kids who played on a regular basis, and four of them averaged 57 percent from the free-throw line. You can’t do that and win.”

Whatever the reasons leading to the mediocre record, Georgetown now has no choice but to move on. The team will keenly feel Brunson’s absence, but many programs will lose key players from this year’s talented senior class.

“There won’t be any player next year in the Big East that can match Brunson’s skills,” Knapp said.

The Hoyas also look to expand their roster, adding more players into this year’s shallow seven-player roster to keep the team running longer in games and deeper into the schedule. Next year also brings changes to the conference, as the conference loses two valuable programs in Virginia Tech and Miami.

“One of our Achilles heels this year was the seven-player rotation,” Knapp said. “[It] is not ideal. Adding more people to the mix and getting more competition on the floor has to be part of our improvement.”

At a time when so much is up in the air in the Athletic Department, the women’s basketball team has some questions to answer, especially regarding Brunson’s graduation. Yet Knapp believes the team has a strong enough grounding with its returning players and recruits to stay competitive next season.

“I think that Miami and Virginia Tech won’t be replaced, but there are still some consistent heavy hitters there. Our goal is to get into the top half of the league, because if you get into the top half of the league, you’re going to get an NCAA bid.”