It’s not about how you start; it’s about how you finish. This clichéd adage has certainly proven to be true for the Georgetown’s women’s basketball team this past week.
Last Saturday, the Hoyas finished strong as they held off a second half surge from DePaul for a 74-65 victory, an exception to Georgetown’s season-long difficulty with closing, which finally caught up with them last night against Marquette.
The back-and-forth affair against Marquette just didn’t go the Hoyas’ way, as they led for most of the second half but relinquished the lead with 1:07 left.
On a night when freshman Sugar Rodgers carried the scoring load with 23 points, the rest of the team couldn’t find its groove, shooting 34.7 percent from the field and 29.4 percent from the three-point line in the 52-45 loss.
Ultimately the difference between the DePaul victory and the Marquette defeat was how the Hoyas played in the final minutes. At home against DePaul, the Hoyas finished strong by outscoring the Blue Demons 28-20 in the final 11:37.
In the more hostile environment of Milwaulkee, Wisconsin, Georgetown committed four turnovers in the last two minutes and didn’t have a field goal in the last five minutes besides a meaningless basket with 6 seconds left.
Although the team lost last night, they can take solace in their win against DePaul. After leading by 13 at halftime, Georgetown let up as DePaul made a run of their own. But the DePaul rush awakened the Hoyas’ tough defense, and the Hoyas shut it down and took the lead for good.
“The game of basketball is a game of runs,” Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said, “We’re going to make our run, they’re going to make their run, when all else fails we just have to get back and play defense.”
Letting teams back into games has been one of the Hoyas’ main concerns this season, but the tough-skinned squad usually finds a second wind when the game gets tight.
“We’re a trapping team, we’re a running team,” Jaleesa Butler said, “so when we let teams get back in it or we start out bad, that’s just what we do, we run, we get rebounds, and we score.”
Along with agressive offense, the Hoyas have the ability to play lock-down defense to stop a run.
The Hoyas are poised to get even better after their Marquette loss. They look to start a new winning streak against Rutgers at home on Saturday. Tip off is at 4 p.m. in McDonough Arena.
