Georgetown senior guard Monica McNutt said last week that her team relies on its defense and has to come up with key stops to win games.
The captain’s words could not have rung more true on Saturday afternoon as the No. 16 Lady Hoyas (14-4, 2-2 Big East) beat Providence (8-8, 1-3 Big East) 49-45 on the road despite failing to break the 50-point mark for only the second time this season.
McNutt scored 17 points to lead the Blue and Gray, who improved their winning percentage to .500 in the cutthroat Big East. The senior guard added another accolade to an already impressive career when a second-half three-pointer put her in Georgetown’s 1,000-point club.
“Individually, I’ve come a long way. 1,000 points is a big deal,” McNutt said. “It’s kind of hard for me to revel and celebrate too much in that win, being that as a team we really didn’t play Georgetown basketball.”
Saturday’s matchup was about as sloppy as they come at this level of the sport. The Lady Hoyas committed a staggering 24 turnovers, including eight by junior point guard Rubylee Wright.
“When we don’t come out and play how we need to play, the game’s going to look like that,” Wright said.
McNutt and Providence’s junior guard Miranda Tate (15 points) were the only players who scored in double figures.
“Not to take anything away from Providence, but I’m not sure they really did anything to take us out of our game,” Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “I thought we made some really bad decisions. … We had travels, we were getting three second [violations] like we were in middle school — just a bunch of dumb turnovers. We have to value the possession of the ball a lot better than that.”
The Georgetown defense stifled the Friars, forcing the solid Big East squad into a 28.6 percent shooting night. Providence was held scoreless for nearly six minutes during one first-half stretch during which the Blue and Gray extended its lead to eight points.
“We just played our normal defense and made some stops,” Williams-Flournoy said. “We didn’t turn them over as much as we’d like, but I still think we played better defense and outrebounded them.”
Star sophomore guard Sugar Rodgers, who was named to the Wooden Award midseason top 20 last week, scored only three points on 1-of-7 shooting, 16 points below her season average. The Blue and Gray were able to squeak out the ugly win largely thanks to McNutt, who added 11 rebounds for her first double-double of the season.
“We had a bye week. We might have been a little sluggish coming out of the gate,” McNutt said. “But every team in the Big East wants to win. We’ve got to give Providence credit, they played very hard. Fortunately, we played a little bit harder.”
The Lady Hoyas travel to South Bend, Ind., tomorrow to take on formidable No. 11 Notre Dame (15-1, 4-1 Big East). The Fighting Irish average 83.7 points per contest while holding opponents to a meager 54.5.
“If defense is what we base our program on then we have to go in and play defense,” Williams-Flournoy said. “Our defense is definitely going to get tested.”
“We know Notre Dame has got it for us. We got them last year at home,” McNutt said. “They’re a top 25 team for a reason as well, so we know we’ve got to be sharp.”
Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at Purcell Pavilion.