Coming off a victory over James Madison in the first round of the preseason Women’s National Invitational Tournament, Georgetown went to West Lafayette, Ind., to confront No. 4 Purdue. However, a lackluster first half for the Hoyas blew any hopes for an upset, and Georgetown lost, 81-67.

Georgetown’s game plan was to stop Purdue’s key players, center Camille Cooper and forward Katie Douglas. While Georgetown’s frontcourt was able to hold Cooper to just five shots and nine points, Purdue’s backcourt put on a shooting clinic. Douglas and guard Kelly Komara combined for 43 points on 12 for 18 shooting. Komara got hot from three-point range, hitting 5 of 6 three-point shots.

“We did a nice job against Cooper but both of their guards hurt us with outside shooting,” Head Coach Pat Knapp said. “Defensively on the perimeter, our guards didn’t defend tough enough and we fouled too much.”

Senior guard Katie Smrcka-Duffy led the Hoyas with 18 points and nine assists and sophomore guard Shawntese Charles added 14 points on an impressive 6 for 8 shooting day. Freshman Rebekkah Brunson rebounded from a poor performance in the James Madison game to get 12 points and a team-leading six rebounds.

Georgetown was called for 23 fouls, nearly twice as many as Purdue.

“The overall sense to me was that we didn’t show enough of a presence,” Knapp said. “Some players weren’t sure what to expect and some were satisfied to hang around with them. We had too many lulls, especially in the first half and our intensity dropped.”

The Hoyas found themselves down 44-30 at halftime, and could not close the deficit.

Knapp was happy though that his team was able to outrebound Purdue on the offensive glass, 12 to 7.

Even though the Boilermakers are currently ranked fourth in the nation, Knapp said that Georgetown will have to face much more intense defense against conference rivals Connecticut, Rutgers and Notre Dame.

But before Big East play begins, the Hoyas must fine-tune some inconsistent parts of their game.

“It’s still early in the season and it’s a work in progress,” Knapp said. “We need to take care of the ball, get rebounds, and bring a higher level of defense to the game.”

Georgetown will look to improve its record to 2-1 against Fairleigh Dickinson tonight at McDonough Gymnasium.

“FDU is a very scrappy and aggressive team,” Knapp said. “Right now, we’re not distinguishing anyone on our schedule and the only team I’m looking at is FDU.”

The Devils, who finished 15-11 last year, play Division III basketball in the Mid-Atlantic Conference. Guard Heidi Kindel, who led Fairleigh Dickinson with 13.8 points per game last season, leads a small squad that features only one player taller than six feet.