Charles Nailen/The Hoya Junior guard Bethany LeSueur led rebounding for Georgetown last Wednesday night. The Hoyas were soundly defeated by the Fighting Irish, 66-52, in a one-sided rematch.

When the Georgetown women’s basketball team faced Notre Dame in a rematch of its thrilling come-from-behind, last-minute upset from early January, sparks were meant to fly. But the drama was conspicuously absent in South Bend, Ind., as the Fighting Irish pulled away in the first half and stayed on top for a 66-52 win and some sweet revenge.

When the two teams last met, Notre Dame (14-7, 7-2 Big East) stood at 7-6 and had been dealt some tough losses early on. While the Irish nearly took down the Hoyas (10-10, 4-6 Big East) at cDonough, the home team rallied in the final moment with a run that capped the win. Since then, however, Georgetown has struggled in conference play, going 3-4. Notre Dame, however, has flown high ever since, going 7-1, with wins over Connecticut, Miami and Boston College. To the Hoyas’ credit, they equaled Notre Dame’s victories against Villanova and Virginia Tech and loss to West Virginia. Moreover, Georgetown came down to the wire in second overtime against Miami.

Coming into the Joyce Center, Georgetown knew it had a lot going against it: the crowd, the opponent’s memory of a bad loss, Notre Dame’s recent surge and a dominating post player in junior forward Jacqueline Batteast. The game would be far different from the Villanova matchup, in which Georgetown needed to close off the perimeter against a team it could dominate in the paint.

“A big portion of the game was trying to defend them and their post players. That’s a defensive team situation, and we didn’t always do that well,” Head Coach Pat Knapp said.

The first half started with Notre Dame jumping out to the lead, and not letting up. With a crowd of over 5,000 behind them, the Irish only led by a thin lead at first. Only seven minutes into the game, however, the home team went on a seven-point run to open up the lead. Shooting above 50 percent and garnering 18 points in the paint, Notre Dame had little trouble staying ahead of Georgetown, which fizzled on offense, shooting under 30 percent.

“Notre Dame played a very physical style,” Knapp said. “We played hard, but we didn’t execute very well. We need to work at things on offense.”

Georgetown fell behind by 13 points, 36-23 at the end of the first half, the worse deficit the team has faced at halftime this season. Coming back on the court, the Hoyas looked like they were able to make a move, going on an 8-0 run early on to bring the score to 38-33. The Irish responded with nine unanswered points to give them a 14-point lead, and the Hoyas faded out from the game.

As Notre Dame continued to dominate inside and Georgetown kept missing shots, the game quickly grew one-sided. At one point, the home team led by 19 before the game eased up. In the end, Notre Dame had the clear upper hand in the 66-52 victory.

Georgetown continued to shoot just below 30 percent, finishing 16-for-54 in field goals. Notre Dame shot fewer, but made a number of easy layups, going 24-of-52 from the floor. The Irish also held the advantage in rebounding, 42-30, one of the season’s worst showings for the Hoyas. Junior guard Bethany LeSueur grabbed 10, while the nation’s eighth-best rebounder, senior forward Rebekkah Brunson, was limited to seven boards along with her 12 points. Batteast shone for Notre Dame with a game-high 20 points along with nine rebounds.

“Brunson spent a lot of energy defending a bunch of different post players. Batteast had an edge on her [in shooting] but Brunson was concentrating on keeping a lot of different players out of the paint,” Knapp said.

Eleven of the 12 players on the roster saw time on the court while freshman guard Kate Carlin made an unusual appearance on the starting lineup.

“We’re only going to get better if we practice better. The lineup is going to change to reflect who has been playing well in practice,” Knapp said. “You don’t know who will be the starting five for the next game.”

Georgetown takes a break from conference play to take on Virginia (10-10, 4-5 ACC) this Sunday. Tip-off is 3 p.m. in cDonough Gymnasium.

“I think that we’ll get off to better offensive execution,” Knapp said. “We’ll be ready to play Sunday.”