Despite a record-breaking night for graduate guard Kelsey Ransom, the Georgetown University women’s basketball team dropped their latest Big East matchup against Creighton University 84-70 Jan. 29.
The Georgetown Hoyas (10-11, 3-7 Big East) entered their game against the Creighton Bluejays (17-4, 9-1 Big East) looking to turn their momentum around after dropping five of their last seven games. Unfortunately for Georgetown, Creighton’s deep attack proved overwhelming.
The Hoyas had a rough start on their first possession, coming up with no points and a shot clock violation. Luckily for them, senior center Ariel Jenkins scored on the next possession to put Georgetown on the board. The teams went back and forth for the first quarter, both exhibiting shortcomings. The Bluejays committed too many fouls, drawing two crucial offensive whistles leading to 2 turnovers. The Hoyas, on the other hand, struggled with their perimeter defense, giving up four 3-pointers in the first quarter alone.
The Bluejays started the second quarter on a hot streak, with another pair of 3-pointers courtesy of guard Lauren Jense to expand their lead to their largest so far — 12 points. The Bluejays kept their deep attack strong for the rest of the half, finishing with 8 made shots from deep on 53% shooting.
Though Georgetown finished the half down 37-45, Ransom entered the history books in the waning minutes of the second quarter. Ransom became the first player in Georgetown women’s basketball history to record 1000 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists in a career.
Ransom said she credits her coaches and teammates for making the achievement possible.
“It’s just a testament of hard work and good players around me and trust between players and coaches, and that they put me out there to do a job, and that statistically, it shows up,” Ransom told The Hoya after the game. “But there are a lot of things that we do that are intangible that don’t show up on the stat sheet that are equally as important that more wins than the things that show up on paper.”
The Bluejays continued their volley of threes throughout the third quarter, increasing their lead to 19, their largest of the game. By the third quarter, each member of Creighton’s starting five had registered a three, logging 33 of their 66 total points thus far from beyond the arc. Georgetown’s failure to protect the ball — amassing 6 turnovers in the third quarter — also hurt their cause.
Georgetown entered the fourth quarter down by 15 and made it clear by their full-court press defense that they were attempting a comeback. The effort was valiant: The Hoyas closed the gap to within 7 at one point, thanks to first-year guard Khadee Hession putting 8 on the board, including back-to-back 3-pointers. Unfortunately, poor defense in the paint and crucial missed layups in crunch time sealed their defeat.
Head Coach Darnell Haney said his team’s failure to complete the comeback resulted from their lack of execution on the little things in the game.
“Got to make sure that everybody has to be locked in and focused on making sure we do the little things to beat teams like this,” Haney told The Hoya. “Creighton is a really good team, right? And in order to beat a really good team, we can’t have, you know, some of the chippies we missed. We can’t miss those right free throws going to the free throw line.”
“To beat a good team, a team that, in some polls, that is nationally ranked, everybody has to be clicking. Everybody got to be on the same page, and everybody’s got to be ready to go out and compete. I don’t think at every point of this game today we did that,” Haney added.
The Georgetown women’s basketball team will take the court next against the Xavier University Musketeers (6-15, 1-9 Big East) in Cincinnati, Ohio Feb. 5 to see if they can turn the ship of their season around.