The Georgetown women’s basketball team’s offense fired on all cylinders on Saturday.

Even with four players in double digits, however, the Hoyas had no answer for the Pittsburgh Panthers’ bigger post players, who pranced through the paint for 42 points in an 85-81 win.

“We’ve got to play better defense. For once, it wasn’t our offense that was the problem,” Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said.

Even though Georgetown (6-11, 1-5) evaded the scoring problems that have kept the team down this season, it lacked a strong post defense to keep Pittsburgh (11-6, 3-3) from overpowering its hosts at the post. While the Hoyas managed to keep the score close, they could not keep the Panthers from getting inside and scoring or drawing the foul.

Georgetown started out ahead, going up 17-9 after 10 minutes in the first half as the Pittsburgh starting five failed to make an impression on the court.

Momentum shifted back to the Panthers as freshman starting forward Mercedes Walker teamed up with senior forward Allisha orris to push the ball inside. The pair, both standing solid at 6-foot-3, muscled their way inside to tie the Hoyas, 24-24, at 5:33.

After some back-and-forth scoring, Georgetown put up its last major lead, 38-31, with 2:37 left only to stand back and watch Pittsburgh take the lead at halftime with a nine-point run.

Pittsburgh kept the lead throughout the second half behind the efforts of Walker and Morris, who combined for almost half their team’s points. The Panthers went out on an 11-point lead, driving to 72-63 with only six minutes left on the clock, before the Hoyas nearly leveled the score in the final minutes.

The comeback fell short, however, as Pittsburgh sunk six of eight free throws in the final minute to stay ahead of Georgetown. The hosts could not come up with a winning play and had to settle for a close loss.

“Obviously we got killed in the paint and off the bench,” senior forward Varda Tamoulianis said.

The Hoyas showed an improvement from previous offense efforts, shooting for 43.9 percent on the game and netting 29 field goals. Four players garnered double-digits figures, led by Tamoulianis and freshman forward Kieraah Marlow, each with 17 points. Marlow, who led the game with 11 rebounds, returned to early season form after a few unproductive games.

“I knew from the beginning of the season that I’d have games where I wouldn’t score,” Marlow said. “I just really focused on finishing today.”

Freshman guard Kristin Heidloff collected 16 points off 6-for-10 shooting. Senior guard Bethany LeSueur rounded out the group with 12 points. Georgetown could only squeeze 11 points from the bench, including senior guards Mary Lisicky and Sarah Jenkins.

“We’ve gotten two kids coming off the bench fighting injuries. We’ve known since the beginning of the season that there wasn’t a whole lot to get off the bench, so basically anything we get out of the bench is good,” Williams-Flournoy said.

Walker was Pittsburgh’s most effective starter with 22 points and nine rebounds, and Morris stepped up with a game-high 22 points and nine boards, high above her season average of 2.1 points and 1.4 rebounds. The Panthers had three other scorers in double figures and outrebounded the Hoyas 40 to 30.

“Even though they were big, we still could’ve played them,” Tamoulianis said. “We practiced how to play them, but we didn’t do it.”

The visiting team also posted 24 points from the free-throw line out of 32 attempts; the Hoyas managed 17 points off 20 tries.

Georgetown will look for its second conference win tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in McDonough Gymnasium as Seton Hall comes down. The Pirates (10-8, 2-5) held off the Hoyas 55-48 earlier this month at home.

“We didn’t play that badly against Seton Hall,” Williams-Flournoy said. “A few times we had trouble scoring. Maybe offensively we’ll be a little better. We had trouble against their press, but we’ve gotten better running against presses. Maybe we can put that together for a win.”