The Georgetown women’s basketball team won its home opener 74-55 against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday and earned a low-scoring 45-30 victory against Loyola on Tuesday.
Georgetown battled with UMES throughout the first three quarters before outscoring the Hawks by nine in the fourth quarter. After graduate student guard Mikayla Venson hit a three–pointer to end the first quarter, the Hoyas started a scoring run and led by 18 points at the 3:06 mark in the second quarter. However, UMES responded and cut Georgetown’s lead down to nine at the half and then to two midway through the third quarter.
After a layup from graduate student guard Dorothy Adomako extended the Hoyas’ lead to six, freshman guard Nikola Kovacikova added eight points in the final minutes of the third quarter to give Georgetown a 10-point lead heading into the final quarter.
Adomako finished with a double–double, 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Venson scored 17 points, including 12 from behind the three-point line. Georgetown also received a strong performance from Kovacikova, who came off the bench to score 15 points, shooting 75 percent from three-point range. 2017-18 first team all-Big East selection senior guard Dionna White also contributed seven points and four assists. Head Coach James Howard said that the Hoyas had to adjust to the Hawks’ game plan and provide opportunities for Adomako to score in the paint.
“When you’re playing a scrappy team like them, it puts you in a position to be on your heels versus attack,” Howard said in a postgame press conference. “We had to switch in the second half and play a smaller lineup to go along with what they were doing. We tried to get the ball to Dorothy a little bit more and get her to the rim. I thought Nikola played well off the bench. She came up with shots when we needed them most.”
Georgetown again faced tough competition against Loyola on Tuesday. The Hoyas earned an early lead with back-to-back three-pointers from Venson. However, Loyola climbed back and led by one point at the end of both the first and second quarters. At the start of the third quarter, the Hoyas grabbed a nine-point lead and scored 10 unanswered points. In a low–scoring game that featured offensive struggles from both teams, Georgetown held onto its lead and cruised to a 15-point victory.
Without Adomako, who did not play against Loyola, White began to find the form that she displayed last year, leading the Hoyas in scoring with 15 points. In a game where points were hard to come by, junior guard Morgan Smith affected the game on the glass, recording nine rebounds throughout the game.
Despite the lack of offense from the Hoyas, who shot 29.6 percent from the field and 25 percent from beyond the three-point line, they earned a double-digit victory. Georgetown held Loyola to 22 percent shooting from the field and 20 percent from behind the arc. Howard emphasized that Georgetown’s main focus in the second half was defending as a team.
“Before the second half, I told the team that we needed to focus on playing defense,” Howard said. “We came back out and challenged their defense as a team — five people playing defense, five people going to the basket. We held them to five points for most of the second half. It was a great defensive effort on our behalf.”
Georgetown will be back in action in an away matchup against James Madison on Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in Harrisonburg, Va.
