The Hoyas came out strong at home against the Cincinnati Bearcats last Tuesday, but despite their efforts the ladies fell into a shooting drought in the first half and never recovered. The Bearcats (12-7, 3-4 BE) defeated Georgetown (11-9, 1-6 BE) by a score of 80-62, bringing the Lady Hoyas’ losing streak to three.
The Hoyas jumped out to an 11-6 lead and seemed to be on track. As time went on, however, Cincinnati adjusted. They substituted in Treasure Humphries and Karen Twehues and started to press the Hoyas.
“The pressing—that seemed to disrupt them enough for us to take advantage and get some easy baskets,” said Cincinnati head coach Laurie Pirtle of the adjustments. “That was the difference in the first half. Once we got on that roll, we were able to reduce how many field goals they were making.”
The Bearcats did manage to stall the Hoyas at 12 points for nearly four minutes in the first half. Georgetown Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy, however, did not attribute the lack of points to the Bearcats’ press, but rather to the Hoyas’ mistakes on offense and poor shooting.
“We missed a lot of lay-ups,” she said after the game. “We got shots. Their press really didn’t slow us down. Besides the turnovers, once we broke the press, we were able to get into our offense. We go through a lot of the same offenses every day and they just have to be able to put it in the basket.”
At the half, down 44-20, and with a 26.9 (7-26) field goal percentage, the Hoyas had to improve their shots if they were going to compete.
Meredith Cox sank two threes back to back, and the Hoyas worked their press well, grabbing four points off of turnovers early in the half. The Hoyas managed 14 points in the first four minutes, while the Bearcats only scored five.
“We came out aggressive in the second half because we had to, we had to press,” Williams-Flournoy said. “At halftime you can be down by, at the lowest, ten points. You can’t be down by 24; that is just too many,”
After Cincinnati obtained possession from a Hoya turnover and took a timeout, the Bearcats cut the Hoyas’ surge short, and pulled their lead up to 26 points. The Hoyas only managed 18 more points the rest of the game, and could not stop the Bearcats’ offense, finally falling 80-62.
“They [Georgetown] had a tight game against Penn State, a tight game against Louisville and they beat Utah in here. They play well here so we are happy to get out,” Pirtle said after her team’s win.
Junior forward Kieraah Marlow dominated the scoring for the Hoyas, putting in 20 points. She was followed by Cox, who sank 10, and freshman Jaleesa Butler who had a career night with nine points.
Georgetown out-rebounded the Bearcats 44-32 and played well defensively.
Offensively, the Hoyas could not find the basket, ending the game with an abysmal field goal percentage of 31 percent.
“We have got to figure out the scoring drought,” Williams-Flournoy said of the game. “The defense was there. A few times we gave up lay-ups, but we played great defense. We brought them down to the shot clock several times.”
The Hoyas will have a chance to break their Big East losing streak this Saturday when they host West Virginia.
