Despite a strong fourth quarter that saw the Georgetown University women’s basketball team nearly erase a 16-point deficit against St. John’s, the Hoyas could not get the job done, dropping their second straight conference game, 57-56. 

The Hoyas (14-7, 4-6 Big East) traveled to Queens, N.Y. on Jan. 28 to face the Red Storm (14-9, 8-3 Big East), hoping to regain momentum after a tough home loss to No. 22 Creighton (17-3, 8-2 Big East).

The first quarter got off to a slow start with both teams holding strong on defense. While Georgetown limited Red Storm guard Unique Drake, who came off a career-high 36-point game just three days earlier against DePaul (11-12, 3-7 Big East), to 0 points in the first quarter, the Hoyas could not capitalize on this opportunity as they fell behind 8-12.

Early in the second period, though, St. John’s jumped to a 10-point lead. However, a 10-0 run — with 8 of the points coming in less than a minute — from the Hoyas, set off by graduate forward Mya Bembry, cut the deficit to 23-22 entering halftime. 

The third quarter saw a patient and methodical Red Storm offense, which proved to be very effective. St. John’s offense — coupled with numerous Georgetown defensive miscues — provided the Red Storm with a 48-32 lead entering the final 10 minutes. 

Georgetown interim head coach Darnell Haney was not happy with the team’s decision-making in the third quarter.

“We had some people that got outside of our norm offensively and tried to be heroes and play hero ball, and we can’t do that because it throws our rhythm off,” Haney told The Hoya. “We gotta do a better job of being smarter in our decisions on the offensive end of the floor.” 

By the fourth quarter, Georgetown began to turn the game around. The team drew repeated fouls from St. John’s and found some offensive rhythm. 

Two big plays by graduate forward Graceann Bennett helped the Hoyas pull within 4 points, down 55-51, with about a minute left to go. Senior guard Kelsey Ransom followed up with a layup with 8 seconds remaining to cut St. John’s lead to 1 — but in the end, it was not quite enough. 

When asked what changed between the third and fourth quarter, Haney said the team played with more urgency.

“We revved up our intensity and our defensive pressure a little bit, and it kinda got us energized on the offensive end of the floor,” Haney said.

Despite the painful 1-point loss, the Hoyas outscored the Red Storm 24-9 in the fourth quarter, nearly reversing the earlier deficit and demonstrating their collective fight in the process. 

In their past two games, the Hoyas have played two of the top three teams in the conference and have lost by a combined 6 points. Both games were intense, closely contested and came down to the wire, an indicator of the high level the team is capable of playing at. 

Haney viewed the two consecutive losses as positive signs of growth overall, but he acknowledged that the team needs to learn how to win in the clutch. 

“We were in position to win both those games against the number two and number three team in the conference,” he said. “What we have to do is have the highest level of focus.” 

Specifically, Haney wants to see the Hoyas focus on perfecting the little things. 

“It’s a level of focus that we have to have, that we haven’t had in a minute. We dominate the details, we’ll take care of business,” he said. “I’m excited about our progress, I’m excited about our fight, I’m excited about our heart. We’re not gonna back down.”

Georgetown proceeded to drop a tough 71-54 decision to Seton Hall (13-8, 5-5 Big East) and will look to break out of its mini-slump at home against DePaul on Feb. 4 at 2 p.m.