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

Women’s Basketball | Hoyas Drop Two Straight at Home

JULIA HENNRIKUS/THE HOYA Freshman guard Dorothy Adomako led the Hoyas against St. John’s on Friday. Although the Hoyas fell to the Red Storm 75-57, Adomako scored 15 points and notched six rebounds.
JULIA HENNRIKUS/THE HOYA
Freshman guard Dorothy Adomako led the Hoyas against St. John’s on Friday. Although the Hoyas fell to the Red Storm 75-57, Adomako scored 15 points and notched six rebounds.

The score line of the Georgetown-Seton Hall women’s basketball game shows a commanding 99-85 overtime win for No. 25 Seton Hall (19-2, 8-1 Big East). The score line, however, fails to do justice to the performance turned in by Georgetown (4-17, 2-7 Big East).

The Hoyas entered the game as underdogs. A young team with a first-year head coach, Georgetown showed its potential in several games throughout season, but had yet to string together a complete, 40-minute performance.

Georgetown was coming off of a 74-57 loss at the hands of St. John’s University (15-5, 6-3 Big East) on Friday evening. After a back-and-forth beginning, the Red Storm went on a 10-2 run to take a commanding 22-11 advantage. They followed their dominant start with another 13-2 run to enjoy a 35-20 lead going into halftime.

Although the second half was considerably closer, the Red Storm still managed to outscore the Hoyas 39-37 and cruise to an 18-point win. Junior guard and Big East leading scorer Aliyyah Handford, who scored 22 points on 9-of-17 shooting, led St. John’s to victory.

“You are not going to stop a great player, but we wanted to make it hard for [Handford]. We did not do that in my opinion,” Georgetown Head Coach Natasha Adair said. “My hat goes off to her because she is a phenomenal player in this league. It was not what went wrong, it’s that she is a tough guard.”

Meanwhile, the Blue and Gray had three players in double figures. Freshman guard Dorothy Adomako led the way with 15 points and six rebounds, followed by sophomore forward Faith Woodard with 13 points and junior forward Logan Battle, who had 10 points.

“We started out good. I think we played well in spurts. … We have to cut down on the turnovers. … A lot of that was self-inflicted,” Adair said. “We are right here. We are half an inch. You slide over half an inch. You extend on a layup half an inch. Half an inch can be fixed. The things we are talking about are things we can correct in practice, we can correct as a team. So as a unit we will continue to grow.”

But Sunday afternoon’s game followed no such script. After initially falling behind by eight points midway through the first half, Georgetown — led by the three-point shooting of junior forward Brittany Horne — rallied to gain a 40-31 halftime advantage.

Georgetown’s momentum, however, did not carry over to the second half. After junior forward Dominique Vitalis opened the half with a layup, the Pirates, with a 12-6 run, closed to within two points.
Throughout the second half, Seton Hall seemed poised to take the lead. But, each time, Georgetown responded and opened several six-point leads.

The Pirates, however, were resilient. With less than two minutes remaining in the second half, they went up 76-75.

Unfazed, the Blue and Gray responded with a quick layup by Adomako to reclaim the lead. The two teams exchanged baskets down the stretch until the game was knotted at 82 with 11 seconds remaining — and Georgetown had the last possession in regulation.

FILE PHOTO: JULIA HENNRIKUS/THE HOYA Junior forward Logan Battle added 10 points to the Hoyas’ effort against St. John's on Friday.
FILE PHOTO: JULIA HENNRIKUS/THE HOYA
Junior forward Logan Battle added 10 points to the Hoyas’ effort against St. John’s on Friday.

The Pirates deflected the inbounds pass, leaving the Hoyas with 6.6 seconds remaining to make one last play.

Off the second inbounds play, junior guard Katie McCormick slipped off a series of screens and had an open look from three, but her shot went long.

With the miss, the game was sent to overtime.

Despite the team’s heroic efforts in regulation, Georgetown was unable to keep pace with Seton Hall and ultimately fell 99-85.

“They ran a flat offense. [Graduate student guard Daisha Simmons], who scored a lot of their points, can finish really well,” McCormick said. “But we didn’t step up and make any stops. That’s on us; we weren’t making any stops like we were in [regulation].”

Adomako once again led the way for the Hoyas, scoring a career-high 25 points on 9-of-19 shooting. Vitalis and Battle each contributed 16 points in the losing effort.
Meanwhile, Simmons and junior forward Tabatha Richardson-Smith scored 32 and 29 points, respectively, to lead the Pirates.

Despite emerging from the weekend with two losses, the Hoyas faired considerably well against the best competition the Big East has to offer.

“For the team that we are in that locker room, [the Seton Hall loss] gives us fight,” Adair said. “It gives us that wherewithal that if that’s the number one team in our conference, if that’s the 20th team in the country … it’s not whether we have enough. It’s about putting it together and playing together for 40 minutes, or 45 minutes. And we’ll be ready.”

Co-captain McCormick assented.

“We can play with anyone, we showed it against [Seton Hall],” McCormick added. “We just didn’t finish.”
As Georgetown begins the second half of its conference schedule, it will have the opportunity to avenge these losses.

Its first opportunity comes on Friday, as Georgetown faces DePaul in Chicago. Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m.

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