The No. 20 Georgetown women’s basketball team (15-5, 4-3 Big East) suffered another home loss to a ranked opponent, falling to No. 16 Louisville (16-4, 5-2 Big East) Saturday night, 64-61. Though the game was tight until the end, poor shooting from both the field and the free-throw line eventually proved to be Georgetown’s downfall.

“Well I’m not going to say that it completely shuts down the rest of the season,” Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoysaid. “We still have a lot of games left to play, but unfortunately these are the games that we’ll go back and look at and kick ourselves a few times for not winning.”

The Blue and Gray shot a poor 32.9 percent from the field but were even worse from the charity stripe, shooting 7-of-13 and missing key free throws down the stretch that would have cut into Louisville’s lead.

Junior guard Sugar Rodgers led the way for the Hoyas with 24 points, while senior point guard Rubylee Wright and senior forward Tia Magee posted 11 points each.

However, Georgetown had difficulty finding sustained production outside of Rodgers. This problem was highlighted when Louisville was able to neutralize the guard with the box-and-one, a defensive scheme in which four defenders play zone while one shadows the offense’s best scorer.

“More of us need to get to the gym, me especially, and shoot more so that teams know they can’t just box-and-one Sugar and beat us,” Magee said.

“I think some other kids have to step up and shoot the basketball,” Williams-Flournoy said.

The teams exchanged leads throughout the first five minutes of the contest, although the Cardinals went on a run and jumped out to an 18-11 lead with 10 minutes left in the half. Louisville picked apart the usually stingy Georgetown defense to the tune of 50 percent shooting in the first frame.

The Blue and Gray were able to pull within four at halftime thanks to a pair of threes from Wright and Rodgers, but Louisville still went into the locker room with a 29-25 advantage.

Louisville increased that lead to 34-25 early in the second half, but the Hoyas immediately fought back to take a two-point lead just five minutes into the half. The run was sparked by Georgetown’s trademark full-court press, as the Hoyas forced 25 Cardinal turnovers.

But Louisville battled through the press and make Georgetown pay for gambling on defense, thanks to some exceptional three-point shooting from the guards. The Cardinals took a 10-point lead with three minutes left in the game and managed to survive a late surge from the Hoyas to secure the victory.

“I don’t think [the loss had] anything to do with the press. We turned them over 25 times,” Williams-Flournoy said. “Our defense is good enough to keep us in the game, but we’re not making the shots to win the game.”

Sophomore point guard Shoni Schimmel lead the Cardinals with 19 points, while senior guard Becky Burke and sophomore guard Antonita Slaughter put up 13 and 11, respectively. Most importantly, 11 of the trio’s 13 baskets came from behind the arc.

The Hoyas will hit the road for their next contest, as they take on West Virginia at 7 p.m. Tuesday.