Mathematically eliminated from the Big East Tournament after this past Saturday’s 67-50 loss at Villanova (18-9, 9-8 BE), the Georgetown women’s basketball team could have thrown in the towel Tuesday night in their season finale. Although Georgetown (10-17, 3-13 BE) fell to South Florida (19-10, 9-7) by a score of 71-57 at McDonough Arena, the Hoyas did not play dead.
“I commend Georgetown because their season’s done, they’re over,” South Florida Head Coach Jose Fernandez said of Georgetown’s effort. “I commend their coaching staff and their players on how hard they competed and played because they really didn’t have anything to play for.”
Or did they? Celebrating Senior Night, the Hoyas had three seniors to play for. Guard Bethany LeSueur, guard Leslie Tyburski and center Christine Whitt all played their final collegiate game. LeSueur is the seventh player in Georgetown women’s basketball history with 800 points, 200 assists and 400 rebounds.
“It’s been a great four years,” an emotional LeSueur commented after the game.
Georgetown got off on the right foot with a seven-point lead two times in the fourth minute of the game. Sophomore forward Kieraah Marlow paced the Hoyas early on. She scored 18 of her game-high 23 points in the first half. She also snatched 10 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season.
The Bulls grabbed their first lead of the game, 16-15, on junior forward Jessica Dickson’s three-pointer at the 12:44 mark.
See “Women bucked” p. 14
Dickson’s team-leading 22 points were expected since she is the nation’s leading scorer, averaging 22.4 points. South Florida’s offense was bolstered by another Jessica on Tuesday night as Jessica Jackson added 21 points, sniping six threes.
“Jackson’s a shooter,” Fernandez said of his five-foot-six-inch freshman guard. “She feels comfortable playing against zone.”
South Florida built their lead to 42-35 by the end of the first period. The halftime deficit did not bode well for a Hoya team that had trailed at the half in all of their previous 12 Big East losses.
The Hoyas’ inevitable comeback attempt came in the second half, after junior center Nalini Miller hit the first basket of the half for the Bulls. Starting at the 18:05 mark, Georgetown went on an 18-10 run over the next five minutes.
Whitt scored six points in that span, to finish with a career-high 12 points on 6-7 shooting.
“It’s nothing unusual for Christine,” Hoya Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. “It’s nothing that we haven’t seen in practice.”
Sophomore guard Kristin Heidloff’s lay-up with 13:12 left to play marked the end of the Hoyas’ run, which brought the Hoyas within one of the Bulls’ lead at 54-53. The flu has kept Heidloff out of Georgetown’s last two practices, but the sickness could not stop the assist machine from dishing out seven.
South Florida followed the Hoyas’ run with a 15-0 stretch of their own. With 16:37 to go, the Bulls led 69-53. After Heidloff’s lay-up, the Hoyas went the final 13 minutes with only one field goal and two foul shots.
“It was the same thing that kind of caught us a little bit all year long. We made a great comeback to get within one, and then we couldn’t score,” Williams-Flournoy said of her team’s effort. “We had pretty good looks. We just couldn’t knock them down.”
South Florida now looks ahead to the Big East Tournament at the Hartford Civic Center in Connecticut. They will be the No. 7 seed and face No. 10 Notre Dame this Saturday in the first round. In the two teams’ only meeting this year, the Bulls defeated the Fighting Irish 68-64 in overtime.
“It’s our first year going to the tournament,” Fernandez said. “I’m very pleased to be part of what I think is the best basketball league in the country, with 16 teams. The competition from top to bottom is amazing.”
