Hoyas falter, seniors bow out

A year after putting Georgetown on the national radar with a near upset against Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament, the Georgetown women’s basketball team failed to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. The Hoyas, a five-seed, were undone in the Round of 32 by Georgia Tech, 76-64.

Last year, the upstart Hoyas lost by five to the country’s top team, nearly ousting the Huskies in their first Sweet Sixteen appearance. Although they lost senior leader Monica McNutt in the process, the Hoyas returned with high expectations in 2011.

With junior scorer Sugar Rodgers and senior forward Tia Magee in fold, the Hoyas hoped to replicate their results from last season, but came up just short against the Yellow Jackets. A victory would have meant a matchup with this year’s top-ranked team, the Baylor Bears.

Instead, the Hoyas fell, allowing a six-point halftime deficit to double over the rest of the game. Rodgers scored 14 points but struggled from the field, connecting on just four of her 19 shots. In addition to Rodgers’s poor shooting, they were done in by a 23-point effort from Georgia Tech freshman Sydney Wallace.

But at the end of the game, Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy beamed with pride over her seven graduating seniors, with Magee at her side.

“I’m very sad to see these seven seniors go, but one thing’s for sure—they know that what they’ve done for this program will never be touched by any other group that comes in here, because they put Georgetown on the map right away,” she said.

The group pieced together four postseason bids, including three trips to the NCAA Tournament. Including Magee, the Hoyas will lose three starters to graduation. Guard Rubylee Wright and forward Adria Crawford, the two other starters, have played significant roles in all three NCAA Tournament bids. But for next season, the Hoyas return Rodgers, their best scorer, and an emerging forward in sophomore Sydney Wilson to pair with the team’s three freshmen.

Still, their departure represents a great attrition—not just of talent, but of seven leaders who went through thick and thin over their time on the Hilltop. An emotional Magee, reluctant to end her Georgetown career, put it all in perspective for the rest of her seniors.

“I’m crying because I’m sad that it’s over, but at the same time, my four years were amazing, and I wouldn’t change anything about it,” she reminisced. “It was tough, nothing about it was easy. We lost games we shouldn’t have lost, but we upset a lot of people. We made a lot of noise.”