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Photo by Lindsay Anderson

Junior guard Brina Pollack scored four points on 2-of-10 shooting to along with her four assists in Saturday's loss to West Virginia.

The Hoyas faced an uphill battle when they took on the Mountaineers, but eight minutes into the first half, Georgetown held a tenuous 12-11 lead and had kept pace with West Virginia’s torrid 60-percent shooting.

Then the Mountaineers (16-3, 5-1 Big East) started playing like the team that flew past the Hoyas (11-8, 1-5) 69-47 last year in McDonough Gymnasium. The hosts opened a 13-point lead in the following eight minutes en route to a 67-35 win Saturday afternoon in Morgantown, W.Va.

“I thought that we came out in the start of the first half and played very well, other than the turnovers, and that is my biggest concern with us,” Mountaineer Head Coach Mike Carey said.

Georgetown forced 10 turnovers from the gold and blue but managed just six points on WVU mistakes.

West Virginia senior guard LaQuita Owens led all scorers with 22 points and netted 10 in the first half. The 5-foot-9 North Carolina native also pulled down seven rebounds in her 31 minutes, and her Mountaineers outrebounded the usually stout Hoyas 39-27.

“Shots didn’t fall and we didn’t execute offensively,” Georgetown Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “I’m not trying to take anything away from their defense. If you get open shots and you can’t knock the shots down then I don’t think that has a lot to say about the defense. I think that has a lot to say about us not being able to knock shots down.”

In the first half, Georgetown did not score between 5:13 and 00:12, a stretch that included four turnovers and six missed shots from the Hoyas. As a team, Georgetown went 15-of-50 from the floor and 1-of-12 from behind the arc after shooting nearly 50 percent against Seton Hall last Tuesday.

Freshman forward Monica McNutt was the Hoyas’ most consistent player from the floor, making 4-of-5 two-point shots but managing just 1-of-4 from behind the arc. She led Georgetown with 13 points on a night when its leading scorer, senior forward Kieraah Marlow, notched just eight points on 4-of-10 shooting.

Despite his team extending its lead to as many as 30 points, Carey was not totally satisfied with the effort. “I just thought the second half we didn’t have a lot of energy,” he said.

Georgetown must have had even less energy, scoring just 15 points in the second stanza.

“You aren’t going to be able to hold a team to zero points but when you don’t score that puts you in a bad position,” Williams-Flournoy said. “We were down by nine and then we went 0-for-7 and then nine goes to 20 before you even know it.”

Five Mountaineers had at least eight points in the contest while only five Georgetown players made baskets. The Hoya starters were outscored by their West Virginia counterparts 50-22.

Georgetown will need to address its shooting woes quickly before the Hoyas head to frigid Milwaukee to take on Marquette. The Golden Eagles (11-8, 3-3) are scoring nearly 70 points per game, relying heavily on junior guard Krystal Ellis, who averages 20.4 points per game.

Free Throws

— The Hoyas and Mountaineers may want to consult NBA vet and underhand free-throw shooter Rick Barry. The two teams shot a combined 10-of-22 from the charity stripe Saturday, and Barry, the career .900 free-throw shooter, claims he can teach even Shaquille O’Neal to score from the line.

— In Big East games, Georgetown has shot .291 from behind the arc and .659 from the foul line.

— There were 2,328 in attendance, most of who were students whom claimed early seats for the men’s game against Georgetown in Saturday’s doubleheader.