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Guard Monica McNutt (20) leads the Hoyas on a fast break in their win on Saturday.

“You shouldn’t have won. You got lucky.”

So went the thought process for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (6-2) as they arrived in McDonough Arena this past Saturday.

“Their mentality coming into this game was that we [Georgetown] shouldn’t have won and that we got lucky,” sophomore forward Latia Magee said. “They had a feeling coming here that they were going to win, and we had to prove it to them that we were going to beat them bad.”

agee was one of four Hoyas (7-2) to reach double-digit points during Georgetown’s 73-56 romp over the Demon Deacons on Saturday. Just nine months ago, in the second round of the WNIT, the Hoyas ended Wake’s season with a 72-61 victory on their way to the quarterfinals. Wake Forest was 19-11 going into that game last year and thought that they just were merely unlucky to play a bad game at a crucial time.

The Hoyas, on the other hand, entered the game thinking a little differently.

“We beat them in the NIT last year, and that was a big win for us,” junior guard Monica McNutt said. “But we understood that they felt that it was just a bad game for them. So we wanted to make sure that they understood that we had a little something to do with that bad game.”

cNutt led all scorers on Saturday with 15 points in an encore to her team-leading 23 points in last season’s ousting of the Demon Deacons. She also finished with a season-high five steals, part of a terrific defensive effort as the Hoyas caused 32 Wake Forest turnovers. “We played our 1-2-2 defense, and that’s really our bread and butter,” McNutt said. “It was ideal for a team like Wake Forest. They have a small point guard, so we were able to bottle them up, and they just threw the ball to us.”

Standing at 5-foot-4, Wake Forest point guard Brooke Thomas committed a turnover on the first possession of the game, which led to a layup on the other end of the court by senior forward Jaleesa Butler. The Hoyas were up 2-0 and would never relinquish that lead.

“We just out-hustled them and forced a lot of turnovers. We really got into their heads and took their hearts,” Magee said.

agee finished with nine points, three steals and five rebounds, four off the offensive glass. None of those rebounds were more important than the one that came at the 14-minute mark in the second half.

Despite having held a lead of 19 at one point, the Blue and Gray found themselves up only seven after a Wake Forest 16-9 scoring run. After a missed three-point attempt by freshman guard Ta’Shauna

“Sugar” Rodgers, Magee grabbed the rebound and was subsequently fouled by Thomas. On the ensuing play, Magee fed Rodgers for a layup, ending a 5-0 run and putting the Hoyas up by nine once again. It was smooth sailing from that point on as the Blue and Gray cruised to a 17-point victory.

“This sport is a game of runs, and we knew that they would make some runs,” McNutt said. “We just had to stay solid and we did and we were able to capitalize on a lot of their mistakes.”

“It was a swing,” Magee added. “As [Assistant] Coach [Keith] Brown put it, `it stopped the bleeding,’ and we went on a run after that.”

The Hoyas, however, were not perfect themselves. The Blue and Gray were an abysmal 4-of-21 from behind the arc, and committed 22 fouls. In contrast, the Demon Deacons had better field goal, three-point and free throw shooting percentages than the Hoyas.

“We like to say that we held them to so little shots,” McNutt said before laughing.

She wasn’t wrong. The Hoyas put up 68 shots from the field, compared to Wake Forest’s 46 attempts.

“We were able to get to the free throw line and make shots there,” McNutt continued. “We were moving well and took advantage of their turnovers. You have to have a short memory when you’re shooting from the field.”

Georgetown’s ability to dish out more assists (16) than turnovers (15) was a key factor in its thrashing of Wake.

“[Assistant] Coach Brown always told us not to make the spectacular pass, but to make the easy pass and to run the play all the way through,” Magee said.

Butler and sophomore guard Rubylee Wright led all players with four assists each. Butler had 14 points and a team-leading nine rebounds, while the 5-foot-3 Wright led the Hoyas with two blocks. Sophomore guard Alexa Roche finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, while the freshman Rodgers totaled 12 points and three steals.

Saturday was just the second time that Georgetown has been able to play on its home court. The Wake Forest contest kicked off a portion of the schedule for the Blue and Gray in which they will play three of their next four games at McDonough before a quick road trip to Virginia to play the Richmond Spiders this coming Saturday. The Hoyas’ next game will be against Southwest Baptist Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in McDonough Arena. “