In sunny Honolulu, far from its home court, the Georgetown women’s basketball team got a glimpse of its own strengths and shortcomings, although the latter were more evident.

At the Waikiki Beach Marriot Classic, the Hoyas (1-2) lost 69-58 to host Hawaii (1-1), but overcame another bout of poor-shooting fever for a last-second victory in the next game. Strong play from freshman guard Shanice Fuller guaranteed the 79-77 win over Eastern Kentucky.

“I think it’s just about them stressing,” Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “With shooters it becomes a mental game, and they can’t get it out of their head.”

Against the Rainbow Wahine on Friday, the Hoyas were lost, unable to connect while repeatedly fouling Hawaii’s shooters.

Junior guard Kristin Heidloff, coming off of a 2-for-14 shooting performance against Towson, once again had difficulty finding the bottom of the net, shooting 4-for-10 and 1-for-5 on three pointers in Georgetown’s two games in the Aloha state. The Hoyas’ inside game could not rescue Heidloff’s mediocre offensive performance, as the traditionally reliable junior forward Kieraah Marlow had an uncharacteristically poor performance.

Marlow fouled out of the contest and recorded 11 points on just 2-of-9 shooting. Sophomore forward Katrina Wheeler, usually the Robin to Marlow’s Batman on offense, fared much better, going 5-for-8 from the floor and scoring 11 points.

It was Fuller, however, who saw the most action, in spite of the typical difficulties a freshman has with running the offense at point guard. Fuller led the team with 12 points against Hawaii, but they were an inefficient 12, coming on 3-for-12 from the floor and 5-for-10 from the line.

While senior guard Kate Carlin recorded three rebounds and stayed out of foul trouble, the rest of her stat line looked like an empty scale. As a starter, she played only 15 minutes and failed to score.

“I get down on myself easily,” Carlin said. “Shooting, more or less, is about confidence and practice. The best thing a shooter can do is keep shooting, and the shots will come.”

Georgetown kept shooting, taking 60 shots to Hawaii’s 51. Yet the Hoyas managed to connect on only 20 of them.

Hawaii senior center Brittany Grice was steady for the Rainbow Wahine, scoring 15 points – 13 in the first half – and staying out of foul trouble. Behind by 17 at halftime, the Hoyas could not respond as Hawaii cruised to a win in its first game of the season.

While Hawaii’s pinpoint shooting was too much for the Hoyas on Friday, the Colonels played an up-tempo offense that quickly got ahead of Georgetown on Saturday. Despite leading 21-10 seven minutes into the first half, Georgetown could not hold on, and the Hoyas faced an eight-point deficit at halftime.

But something changed in the second half. For the first time this season, Georgetown’s defense clamped down.

Limiting Eastern Kentucky to only 25 second-half points, Georgetown chipped away at the lead, eventually tying the game for the first time with less than two minutes left, appropriately on a Heidloff three-pointer.

Heidloff made up for her misdeeds in the first two games, going 6-for-11 from the floor and, more importantly, 4-for-7 from long-range.

“Eastern Kentucky was tough,” Carlin said. “They were aggressive, they were athletic and, most of all, they were hard-working. It was a good test for us.”

While Georgetown’s 30-for-57 shooting performance was a season best, the starting lineup may be more indicative of things to come.

Diop started the first game of her Division I career over Carlin, giving the Hoyas three post players and two guards. Carlin, meanwhile, was put in a new position: the bench.

“We’ll probably keep [the rotation] the same right now,” Williams-Flournoy said. “I liked what I saw, starting all the bigs together. [Diop] did much better against Hawaii. She’s still figuring out how to pick up less fouls, but I’m sure it’ll happen.”

The move is a shift from Williams-Flournoy’s preseason credo that Carlin and Heidloff would move to wing positions while Diop, Marlow and Wheeler would rotate in the two post positions. The move worked well, as the three combined for 39 points and 18 rebounds in 84 minutes.

“It has its positives and negatives,” Carlin said of her lost spot in the starting five. “We’re bigger on the frontcourt, but we lack some outside presence now . . If it’s to better the team, then I guess it’s to better the team.”

Despite Williams-Flournoy’s new forward-forward-center rotation, it was a guard who won it in the end for the Hoyas.

Fuller was quiet after scoring a lay-up with 13:11 to play and all but disappeared until the game clock showed 10 seconds.

After two Colonel free-throws, off a Diop foul, tied the game, Fuller dribbled the length of the court, scoring with four seconds remaining to give the Hoyas a 79-77 lead.

Despite calling a timeout and attempting a last-second play, Eastern Kentucky could not get a shot off.

Back on the American mainland, the Hoyas will play host to the Fordham Rams on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Last year, Fordham shockingly took Georgetown into overtime before pulling out a 68-62 win.

“There’s no way we should have lost to them – not to a team that low in the A-10,” Carlin said. “The four of us [returning players] know that we owe them one. We need to take it to them.”