Charles Nailen/The Hoya Senior forward Varda Tamoulianis dribbles down the court with the ball. She saw 13 minutes of action during Georgetown’s 76-59 win over Providence on Saturday.

Keeping the momentum from its dominant win over Syracuse, the Georgetown women’s basketball team glided to a 76-59 victory over Providence on Saturday afternoon to bring its record back up to .500 with one game remaining in the season.

Senior forward Rebekkah Brunson added a bookend to last week’s 35-point showing against the Orangewomen by turning in 30 points against the Friars. She was one of four players that scored in double digits, with senior guard Sarah Jenkins finishing with 11 and junior guards Bethany LeSueur and Mary Lisicky both picking up 10. The Hoyas capitalized on Providence’s weak bench and a number of turnovers to run them off the court with fast breaks and easy layups in the second half.

“We can’t run against every team because of the difference in benches that we have. There are certain teams that will outlast us. That’s not the case with Providence,” Head Coach Pat Knapp said. “We were taking the ball to the basket. That got Sarah and Bethany in double figures.”

Providence (4-22, 0-15 Big East), at the bottom of the barrel, has not had any luck against conference teams this year. For the first half of the game, however, the Friars kept close to the Hoyas (13-13, 7-8 Big East), never allowing them to pull ahead by more than a few points.

Georgetown took the lead from the beginning, but had trouble expanding upon it. While Brunson eased through the half with 14 points and nine rebounds, her teammates lacked the same offensive spark, combining for only seven of the Hoyas’ 13 field goals in the first half. Even though Providence threatened to take the lead many times in the final minutes of the half, Georgetown left the court with a six-point lead, 33-27, its largest so far in the game.

“I think that they made shots and they were open a little but more than they should have been,” Knapp said about Providence’s ability to hang with Georgetown throughout the first half.

Providence, with a very shallow bench after dismissing two players earlier this season, scraped by a with a team effort, matching Georgetown’s 13 field goals for the half. The difference came down to the Hoyas’ 6-of-7 free-throw shooting; the Friars did not go to the line once in the first 20 minutes.

The 625 faithful in Alumni Hall witnessed a familiar sight as the home team fell apart at the hands of a better Big East foe. Georgetown went on an eight-point run to open the half to put away Providence quickly. Running fast breaks and taking easy layups, the Hoyas had no trouble running up the score on the beleaguered Friars.

“We ran more in the second half, and our fast break was clicking. We were also defending them better – in the first half, we just didn’t guard them enough,” Knapp said.

Both teams played strong offensively throughout the second half, with each side ending up with a 50 percent shooting average for the half. The difference was that Georgetown had the ball more often and was able to turn those possessions into baskets. It helped that Providence had 19 turnovers as well, allowing its guest to score 18 extra points. With 19 offensive rebounds, the Hoyas also scored 22 second-chance points to the Friars’ eight.

While Providence remains winless since the start of the new year and is shut out from postseason play, Georgetown has again evened out its record at 13-13. A win against Boston College tonight would allow the team to finish with a winning record this season and an even 8-8 record in the Big East.

The Hoyas last faced the Golden Eagles on Feb. 11, falling 68-58 in a close game that tipped in Boston College’s favor thanks to a slew of free throws in the final minutes. The Eagles will be tough to take on at home, where they are 10-2 this season.

“I think that we can beat Boston College. We will need a third double-digit scorer and we can improve on defense,” Knapp said. “There are four specific plays in the game when we gave up 10 points. We’re going to show the players those ten plays. We can correct those.”

Georgetown, however, has had two easier victories to pad its confidence and has seen Brunson surge to finish out her final season as a Hoya. After becoming only the third player in Big East history to ever record more than 30 points and 20 rebounds in a game, she again produced 30 points and 13 rebounds. She leads the conference in average scoring and rebounding, and may become the first player to finish the season with both titles. This week she was named the conference player of the week, an honor she has held six times this season.

With a win, the Hoyas are sure to clinch ninth place in the conference, although who they are likely to face remains up for grabs. But before they can reach the tournament on Saturday, Boston College still remains. According to Knapp, that is all that matters now.

“I think that the young women are in a good place. It’s just this game. We’ll play some good teams in the tournament, but for now I want to win this next game.”

Tip-off is at 7 p.m. at the Conte Forum.