Not to be outdone by the men’s one point road win against Penn State, the Georgetown Women’s basketball squad won a scrappy road game in similar style on Saturday in Durham NH. The Hoyas defeated the University of New Hampshire Wildcats 61-60 thanks to a basket by Rebekkah Brunson with only three seconds remaining in the game. Taking the Hoyas to a perfect 4-0 start and recording her second straight double-double performance, the senior forward showed why she was named a Wooden Preseason All-American candidate.
In addition to the stats, Brunson scored the important points in crunch time. Down 60-59 with 8.6 seconds left after UNH’s Maren Matthias knocked down two free throws, Georgetown got to half court and called timeout. With only 5.5 seconds on the clock, Brunson got the ball and drove past two New Hampshire defenders and converted the winning layup with just three seconds remaining. New Hampshire tried to inbound the length of the court, but Carmen Bruce intercepted the pass to seal the Hoyas win. Brunson finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Hoyas, who also got 14 points from junior Bethany LeSueur.
The contest was a game of runs, with New Hampshire leading 10-5 early, only to fall behind 19-10 after a 14-0 Georgetown run. Although the Wildcats chipped away at the visitors’ advantage, the Hoyas took the momentum into the half with a last second basket by LeSueur to lead 33-29.
Central to the Hoyas victory was junior point guard Mary Lisicky, whose presence on the court meant more than the 11 points and three assists she pitched in. Lisicky answered an 8-1 run by New Hampshire, which knotted the game at 40, with a pair of three pointers to go ahead by six. The home squad would respond again with an 8-0 spree to go up two with just under 8:00 left in the game. The game went back and forth until the dramatics at the end gave the game to the Hoyas.
The game was the second close match up that Georgetown has won down the second half stretch, following their decisive 67-62 victory over crosstown rival GW in their season opener. The Colonials, a perennial NCAA tournament invitee, were seen as an early season watermark for the team’s success, and they used a career high 19 rebounds and 15 points from Brunson and 17 points from Lisicky to distance themselves in the second half. The team’s winning streak continued with victories over less heralded Lafayette 72-58, and another occasional tournament representative, George Mason 72-63. Brunson pounded the Lafayette Leopard defense for 25 points, helping the squad burst to a 16 point first half lead that they never relinquished. Against Mason the Hoyas and Brunson, who closed with 19 points and 18 rebounds, received a boost from fellow starting forward Varda Tamoulianis, who recorded career highs in points with 14 and rebounds with seven. Together the duo was too much for the Colonial Athletic Conference Patriots to handle.
Brunson has been a dominant force in the paint throughout the early season, earning Big East Co-Player of the Week for each of the past two weeks. Notching three double-doubles in the team’s opening four games, now 35 in her career, Brunson is averaging 18.3 points a game so far this year.
Suddenly crunch time is turning into the part of the game where Georgetown is at ease, and the Hoyas were able to pull off a game that could have gone either way. Out rebounded by the Wildcats, who also shot a 37.3% clip, the Hoyas gutsy presence down the stretch was the difference in the game. The women return to the hilltop looking to continue their winning ways in their home opener against Richmond Dec. 8 at 8 p.m in McDonough Gymnasium.
