Charles Nailen/The Hoya Senior forward Nok Duany passes the ball during Georgetown’s win.
Picking itself up from a series of stumbles late in the season, the Georgetown women’s basketball team dispatched St. John’s University with relative ease on Saturday, keeping postseason chances alive with a definitive 67-52 victory.
The team looked much stronger than in previous performances, giving an all-around effort that ended with four players scoring in double-digits. Playing at Alumni Hall in Queens, N.Y., the team put up a better offensive and defensive showing than it demonstrated against Rutgers and Connecticut in its previous games; the two teams mauled Georgetown in forty point-plus losses.
None of the frustration of the past losses evinced itself this weekend. The Hoyas ran out of the gates and never looked back. With a 10-point run to start off the game, Georgetown shot the ball and rebounded more aggressively than usual and came to dominate quickly.
“We got out to a 13-point lead and we kept that up for the game. The whole team put in a good effort,” Head Coach Patrick Knapp said. “They were faster than us on the floor, but we managed to overcome that.”
The offense stalled out for much of the middle part of the half, and in a six-minute stretch the team managed to add only three points to their tally. In the closing six minutes, though, the team infused some energy into its game and finished with a kick.
The Hoyas led by 16 with two minutes to play when the Red Storm made a small counterattack, cutting the lead down to 11 points. The home team could not get any closer, and Georgetown finished the half in firm control, 36-25. The last time an opponent trailed the Hoyas by that margin at the half took place on Jan. 13 against Columbia, which was down by 13 after the first 20 minutes.
The Hoyas’ shooting average, 48.1 percent, served as a contrast to previous offensive flops from the team. The Red Storm mustered a middling 35.7 percent in comparison and found itself outmatched off the glass, losing the rebound battle 20-14. Georgetown knocked in four from behind the arc, three coming from freshman forward Carmen Bruce, who finished the period with 11 points. Sophomore guard Mary Lisicky had a strong half with 10 points and four rebounds. St. John’s junior guard Shemika Stevens led her team with nine points.
“Bruce came out shooting well in the beginning, which helped out a lot. Lisicky has played well considering that she’s dealing with an injury,” Knapp said.
The second half started slowly, but Georgetown dictated play. The team slowly widened the gap after some early hiccups to extend its lead to 20 points, 53-33, with nine minutes left on the clock. The Hoyas let up, though, and the tag team of Stevens and junior guard Reka Szavuly combined to cut the lead down to 10 points with some sharp shooting abetted by their opponents’ fouls.
The story would have a happy ending for Georgetown. The Hoyas’ hard playing and superior shooting eventually wore down the opposition, and St. John’s capitulated in a 67-52 defeat. After a string of daunting adversaries, a solid win in the conference may serve as a much-needed confidence booster heading into the high-strung atmosphere of the postseason.
The Hoyas kept their shooting up to par with the first half, hitting 41.4 percent for the second period. Their defense also limited the Red Storm to seven field goals, or 28.0 percent of their shots. Junior forward Rebekkah Brunson recorded a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
“Brunson struggled the whole night because they put two or three people on her, but she still managed to overcome it,” Knapp said.
Lisicky also scored 15 points, while Bruce and senior forward Zsuzsanna Horvath added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Georgetown had an unusually high number of fouls, 23, and three of the five starters finished the game with four fouls. The team also turned the ball over 19 times.
Stevens had a breakout second half, scoring 17 points to bring her total up to 26 for the game, which accounted for half of her team’s score. For all her points, she sank only eight of 23 shots, a little more than a third. Szavuly was the only other player to distinguish herself on offense; she finished the game with 11 points. St. John’s struggled from outside, firing 21 three-point attempts but only hitting five.
St. John’s sinks even further with the loss; the team has dwelled at the bottom of the conference all season long and will not qualify for the tournament. The team’s record stands at 2-13 for the Big East and 8-18 overall. Georgetown moves up to 15-11 for the season and to 6-9 in the conference. The team has a guaranteed place at next weekend’s Big East Tournament and sits in ninth place in the conference.
“If we win will be in seventh place, and if we lose we’ll stay in ninth place. We don’t know who we’ll face, but we’ll be ready to meet them,” Knapp said.
Tonight the Hoyas will face Miami, a team that narrowly edged Georgetown 60-57 in early January to start off the Big East portion of the season. The Hurricanes have faced the same bumpy road that the Hoyas have traveled; Miami has dropped six of its last eight games after a strong eight game winning streak. The matchup, the final of the season, will serve as a litmus test for the Hoyas’ growth as players over the past two months. As the teams are currently in eight and ninth place, the meeting also serves as a possible first round preview for the tournament.
“You really get to see to know a team and the players when you face adversity. A lot of players have had to grow up on the court this season. Some were overplaying, some were showing up, and some have shown a lack of fundamentals. The team has come together, though, and we’re playing like a team,” Knapp said.
Either way, Georgetown will travel to Coral Gables, Fla., in search of revenge and a bright ending to an inconsistent season. This win will strongly indicate whether the team has a chance to make the Big Dance or only a short stay at the Big East Tournament.
“We might only find ourselves in the NIT, but we expect to play a good game and have some great games in the tournament,” Knapp said.
