Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Hoyas’ Historic Season Ends With Rout in Second Round

The 2010 season had been one full of highlights and records for the Georgetown women’s basketball team. Unfortunately for the Lady Hoyas, their season ended with another record: a 16.9 shooting percentage, one of their worst offensive performances under Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy, as the Blue and Gray fell 49-33 to Baylor in a putrid offensive display.

 

Coming into Monday night, the matchup between Georgetown (26-7) and Baylor (25-9) was all about the two teams’ star freshmen. For the Hoyas, it was Big East rookie of the year Ta’Shauna “Sugar” Rodgers, averaging 18.8 points per game. For the Lady Bears, it was Big 12 freshman of the year and national sensation Brittney Griner, the 6-foot-8 center who was vying for the NCAA blocked shots single-season record.

 

 

 

It was a tale of two different teams from the outset. The Hoyas had obviously focused their zone defense on shutting down Griner, as Georgetown has struggled all year against big inside presences and Griner is the best paint player in women’s basketball.

 

 

 

For most of the game, it worked – Griner finished with just seven points. What the Hoyas did not do was hit shots, finishing the game with 12 made baskets on 71 attempts.

 

 

 

Georgetown did not score its first points of the game until the 12:22 mark of the first half – more than seven and a half minutes into the game. The Hoyas started out shooting 3-of-27 from the field, often forcing shots inside the lane against Griner while missing a lot of easy put-ins off the glass. Griner simply swatted away or altered most inside shots, which were necessitated by the Hoyas’ poor three-point shooting – Georgetown shot 2-of-10 from beyond the arc in the first half.

 

 

 

Yet Griner was not even a factor for the Lady Bears in the first half. Sophomore forward Adria Crawford entered the game, and in a span of minutes drew two fouls on Griner, forcing the freshman onto the bench. Griner played just six and a half minutes in the first half.

 

 

 

After Griner exited, things seemed to change in the Hoyas’ favor. Baylor continued to turn the ball over on sloppy play, and Georgetown finished the half on a 5-of-10 shooting streak to cut what was once a 19-2 Baylor lead in the early moments to a 31-19 lead at the break.

 

 

 

The Hoyas’ run was sparked by a visibly angry Williams-Flournoy, who managed to draw a warning from the officials about her temper. Sophomore forward Tia Magee led the Hoyas, scoring seven of Georgetown’s first nine points.

 

 

 

The Hoya defense was especially effective, causing 10 turnovers. But Baylor’s size was too much of an advantage, even without Griner, as the Lady Bears were able to draw fouls from the aggressive Hoya defenders. The charity stripe advantage worked, as Baylor shot 11-of-12 from the free-throw line in the first half.

 

 

 

Coming out at the start of the second half, it looked like the Blue and Gray were about to put themselves in position to make a run similar to the 13-0 spurt they used against Marist Saturday night at the start of the second half to pull away from the Red Foxes.

 

 

 

Griner picked up her third foul just 16 seconds into the half, and Baylor was without freshman guard Shanay Washington, who had to exit with a back injury during the first half. Washington shot 5-of-8 against Fresno State in Baylor’s first-round win.

 

 

 

Both teams traded baskets to make the score 37-26 in favor of Baylor, a tally that remained on the scoreboard for four and a half minutes. During that span, which lasted from the 15th minute to the 10th minute of the game, the Hoyas missed multiple opportunities to pull themselves back into the game, turning the ball over in transition and continuing to miss easy layups on offensive rebounds.

 

 

 

Griner was mostly to blame, as she began to take over defensively. She finished with just four rebounds, but she had 14 blocked shots, which not only broke the NCAA women’s single-season blocked shots record (which stood at 195, while Griner currently has 199) but also set a new NCAA women’s tournament single-game record.

 

 

 

“She’s a good player. Like I said before, she’s a big presence down there,” senior forward Jaleesa Butler said. “She ended up with 14 blocks. We just couldn’t make shots tonight. We did what we could to defend her, but it all boiled down to us not being able to make shots.”

 

 

 

As Baylor still struggled offensively, the Hoyas were futile against Griner’s immense presence and the rest of the Baylor defense, which was overall taller than the undersized Hoyas. The Hoyas came into the game as the nation’s leader in turnover margin, at plus-8.3, and they won that battle, causing 21 turnovers while committing just 13 themselves. Baylor even went cold from the free-throw line, missing nine of its last 13 attempts. Griner was especially ineffective on offense, making just two baskets and often losing the ball on lob passes from guards on the perimeter.

 

 

 

But the Hoyas just couldn’t score. Their 33 total points, including just 14 points in the second half, was the lowest point total by the Lady Hoyas since March 3, 2008, when Georgetown managed just 33 against Pittsburgh. The second half even started the same as the first, as Georgetown did not get a basket until Rodgers scored at the 16:28 mark.

 

 

 

“The objective is to score,” junior guard Monica McNutt said. “We defended, we rebounded and we dealt with [Griner’s] presence in the post. We couldn’t buy a bucket tonight. It hurts so bad, but that’s what happened tonight.”

 

 

 

Rodgers finished 5-of-28 from the field in her two-game NCAA tournament debut and led the team with nine points against Baylor. Magee finished with eight points and five rebounds. No Georgetown player scored in double digits.

The Hoyas did manage to record 39 rebounds, including a team-high seven by Crawford, but it was useless as they could rarely convert them into points on the offensive glass. Georgetown was extremely cold from three-point land, shooting just 3-of-19.

 

 

 

“I think they continued to play hard the whole game,” Williams-Flournoy said about her team’s performance, “They never gave up at all. It would be a whole different ball game if we had made shots. We beat Baylor tonight if we made shots. We shot 17 percent from the floor and 17 percent from the three-point line. You shoot like that and you won’t beat anybody. I really think our girls did a good job of doing what we do overall though. We forced them into 21 turnovers and we held [Baylor center Brittney] Griner as best as we could, and to Baylor’s credit they had some players step up. I think our kids did a good job in continuing to play hard.”

 

 

 

It was a memorable season that ended in miserable fashion, but Georgetown remains a young team, with 11 of the team’s 14 players set to return next year. At this point, all the Lady Hoyas can do is enjoy the season that was – an historic season for the program and one that established Georgetown as a new player on the national scene.

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