The Georgetown University women’s basketball team gave away an early lead and fell 76-69 to the Villanova University Wildcats in the Big East opener Dec. 4. The Hoyas’ offensive performance wavered throughout the game, and their defense was weak in comparison to the well-oiled Wildcats, allowing Villanova to pick up points with quick, coordinated plays.
The Hoyas kicked off the game on a 5-0 run and held a 5-point lead through the first five minutes of play. Throughout the rest of the first quarter — and the second and third quarters — Georgetown (5-3, 0-1 Big East) was outscored by Villanova (7-2, 1-0 Big East). The Hoyas consistently kept it tight behind the Wildcats. In a departure from their other two losses, the Hoyas even outscored the Wildcats 25-22 in the fourth quarter, picking up momentum towards the end of the game. This early fourth-quarter energy was soured by injury and multiple timeouts as the quarter dragged on.
Graduate forward Brianna Scott put up the first points of the day, helping start the Georgetown lead of 9-4, which eventually flipped to 14-11 in Villanova’s favor by the end of the quarter. The Hoyas were outrun and outcommunicated by the Wildcats, whose ability to push the pace left the Hoya defense on the back foot.
Villanova kept their slight edge throughout the second quarter, pulling away from Georgetown during messier moments of the game. The Hoyas lost the ball to the Wildcats, with both senior guard Victoria Rivera and graduate guard Laila Jewett losing turnovers. These blunders, combined with strong 3-point conversions from Villanova, continued to make this an away-dominated court. With 6 minutes left, the Wildcats had brought the score up to 21-15. During a quick second half of the quarter, sophomore guard Indya Davis made an impressive steal to counter Villanova, but the Wildcats extended their lead over the Hoyas to 32-25 after the first 20 minutes of play.
During the third quarter, graduate forward Chetanna Nweke opened with a basket, but the Hoyas began to show signs of fatigue while defending against Villanova’s quick offense. This was reflected in the score; the Wildcats put up their biggest lead of the game at 43-29 with 6:31 to go. By the end of the quarter, Georgetown brought it back down to only a 10-point lead, at 54-44 Villanova.
The taste of a comeback motivated Georgetown, and the team managed to get back to a 6-point deficit in the fourth quarter, helped by two 3-pointers made by sophomore point guard Khadee Hession.
Jewett suffered a debilitating calf cramp with 4:07 to go. This incident stopped gameplay while trainers massaged her leg on the court, eventually carrying her off for further stretching. She was able to walk soon after.
Then, a slew of timeouts disrupted Georgetown’s previous pace, and the points began to slip back towards Villanova. Attempts to foul for possession were plagued by painful turnovers and an inability to complete and make up much-needed points. These closing stages still featured 2 critical Villanova-to-Georgetown turnovers that kept them in the game. While anticipation stayed up, gameplay was disjointed in the last minutes due to the combination of injury, timeouts and fouls.
In the team’s other two losses this season to the University of Maryland (10-0) and George Mason University (6-4, 1-0 Atlantic 10), the Hoyas blew fourth quarter leads. Head Coach Darnell Haney believed the area of weakness in the Big East opener came down to the third quarter.
Haney said the Hoyas’ loss to the Wildcats came down to failing to pay attention to details.
“Tonight we had to take care of business in the detailed areas: free throws, layups,” Haney told The Hoya. “I think at crucial times during this game we did not. We put ourselves in a hole in the third quarter and we had to fight out of that hole against a good team like Villanova; they just beat a top 25 team. We can’t do that.”
“We can’t have those little mishaps where we lose our focus for a second,” Haney added.
The Hoyas will return to action on the road Dec. 7 against Wake Forest University (9-1) at 2 p.m.
