Having dropped their last four contests going into Tuesday’s game, the Georgetown women’s basketball team was in a funk. In those four games, though, the team showed true determination and signs of life—most notably in their mere 10 point loss to the fifth ranked Scarlet Knights of Rutgers and senior forward Kieraah Marlow’s 34 point and 17 rebound tear against 16th-ranked Notre Dame. But Tuesday’s game against Seton Hall was a different story.
In the first half Georgetown executed their offense with ease and bothered the Pirates with pesky defense—switching between man-to-man and zone. Lead by a balanced scoring attack with sophomore guard Shanice Fuller and sophomore forward Jaleesa Butler contributing 11 and 12 points respectively and red-shirt junior guard Brina Pollack chipping in with seven of her own, the Hoyas lead by as many as 10 points in the first half and finished the half up nine.
After the game, Butler and Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy and Jaleesa Butler echoed one another, saying that it was their ability to execute on offense that set a favorable tone for the Hoyas and allowed them to set the pace.
“We slowed down the offense and ran plays in the first half,” Butler, who finished with 12 points and 3 rebounds in 32 minutes of action said. “We executed when it mattered.”
In the second half, though, the team appeared to be heading for its fifth straight loss. The Hoyas failed to execute their offense, which Coach Williams-Flournoy attributed to the constant changing of the Seton Hall defense. In the end, however, the team made stops down the stretch and senior center Aminata Diop scored a game-winning turnaround jumper in the paint with 18.6 seconds left. In limited action, Diop finished with 6 points in 17 minutes, and the Hoyas finished on top 57-56.
The Hoyas success was due in large part to a successful outing by Pollack. In the last 5 games, Pollack has been held scoreless twice and had fewer than 7 points in all 5 games.
“I can’t say it’s been an easy time,” she said. “I felt like I hadn’t been pulling my weight. I tried to stay confident and tried to not put pressure on myself.”
Pollack lead the team in scoring, netting 13 points, including a bucket that brought the Hoyas within one point with under a minute left to play.
After the game, Butler, Fuller and Pollack all agreed that it was good to get the proverbial monkey off of their backs and gain their first win since January fourth against Brown. And despite the recent hiccup, Coach Williams-Flournoy is optimistic and is sticking to her goal from the beginning of the season: compete and finish in the middle of the Big East pack. She is confident that this is still a relevant and attainable goal—despite currently being 1-4 in conference play.
“In the Big East there will be games with unexpected results,” Coach Williams-Flournoy said. “There will be teams that win games they aren’t supposed to and lose ones they aren’t supposed to.”
When asked whether she wishes the students gave more support, Coach Williams-Flournoy said that she and the team are appreciative of what support that they get, but “we’d always like to have more support.”
The women head to Morgantown, West Virginia to take on the Mountaineers this Saturday and have a tall task in shutting down Olayinka Sanni, last week’s Big East player of the week. Coach Williams-Flournoy said that the team would look to play different defenses and come at Sanni with different styles of play in hopes of containing her.
After West Virginia, the team will head up to Syracuse to take on the Orange. When asked her strategy for that game, Coach Williams-Flournoy said coolly, “We’re just taking it one game at a time.”
