Senior guard DiDi Burton scored eight points, tallied two assists and notched one steal in her final game in McDonough Arena as a Hoya. Burton has played 117 games for Georgetown and has a running assist total of 413 for her career.
The Georgetown women’s basketball team blew out the Providence Friars 74-48 on Sunday night. The win in the Hoyas’ regular season finale put them at 14-14 in the regular season and 9-9 in Big East conference play. They finished the regular season in a tie for No. 5 in the conference with St. John’s.
In the past month, however, Georgetown went 6-3 with narrow losses and outstanding wins. Head Coach James Howard said his players are confident in their ability to win games.
“We believe we can win and we can play with anyone,” Howard said.
Against the Friars (10-20, 3-15 Big East), the Hoyas dominated statistically across the board. They outrebounded the Friars, had more team assists, committed 10 turnovers and shot 43.9 percent from the field. On the other side, the Friars had 22 turnovers and shot 31.3 percent from the field. The Hoyas’ biggest lead of the game was 33 points.
The game started close, with a tied score of 4-4 three minutes in. However, senior guard Mikayla Venson hit jumpers on back-to-back possessions, sparking a major run for the Hoyas. Georgetown scored 14 unanswered points in under five minutes and ended the quarter leading 18-4.
Georgetown’s momentum on both sides of the ball carried over to the second period, as the team scored the first six points of the period. The team defense was particularly strong. The Friars were held scoreless for a total of 11 minutes before they got their fifth and sixth points of the game.
From there, the Friars were only able to trade baskets with the Hoyas throughout the rest of the game, never cutting the deficit to under 17 points in the second half. The Hoyas went on a 7-1 run in the third quarter and another 14-2 run in the fourth quarter, squashing any hopes the Friars had of coming back.
Junior guard Dionna White had a strong game for the Hoyas with 23 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals. Senior forward Cynthia Petke had a team-leading and career-high 17 rebounds to go along with her 21 points and five steals, and Venson had 12 points and four assists. The large lead throughout the game gave Howard more flexibility, as 10 Georgetown players ended up seeing the floor.
Georgetown drew the third-seed Villanova as its opponent for the first round of the Big East Tournament. In the Hoyas’ last game against Villanova less than a month ago, Georgetown lost a tight game by one point. In that game, White, Petke and Venson combined for 56 of the Hoyas’ 67 points.
The game will be played in Chicago at Wintrust Arena on Sunday, March 4. Tipoff is set for 9:30 p.m.
