After a disappointing 76-72 overtime loss to St. John’s (11-10, 5-4 Big East) this past Saturday, the Georgetown women’s basketball team (13-11, 4-7 Big East) failed to get back in the winning column on Tuesday night as they fell to archrival Syracuse (20-3, 8-2 Big East) 69-60 at McDonough Arena.
On a night where senior guard Sugar Rodgers, the team’s leading scorer, struggled shooting 1-of-12 from the field, other players stepped up for the Hoyas. Freshman forward Dominique Vitalis led the team with 15 points and 8 rebounds. Freshman guard Katie McCormick added 14 points and senior center Sydney Wilson added 12 points as well as 8 rebounds.
“Sugar does so much for us. She’s not going to have a stellar night every night,” said Wilson after the game. “It’s just our responsibility to step up when she’s not having a great night.”
“I’m just trying to help the team,” Vitalis said after the game. “We can’t get down on ourselves. We just have to keep pushing.”
Despite 18 turnovers in the first half, the Hoyas were able to stay in the game as they held the Orange to only 23 percent shooting from the field in the half. After halftime, the Hoyas came out rolling with a 10-2 run, giving them a 35-27 lead early in the second half. However, the Orange responded well as they finished the game on a 42-25 run with Syracuse senior guard Elashier Hall, a D.C. native, erupting for all of her 14 points in the second half.
“I kind of feel like we beat ourselves this time,” Wilson said. “We definitely were capable of beating them. We just made the littlest mistakes over and over again that were killing us.”
Despite being tied at halftime, the Orange’s depth proved too much to handle for the short-handed Hoyas, who had only eight players active for the game due to injuries.
“When you’re playing with six players for 40 minutes and pressuring the basketball for 40 minutes, it just caught up with us a little bit,” said Head Coach Keith Brown following the loss. “We could have used an extra body.”
Georgetown’s loss completes a regular-season sweep at the hands of Syracuse, the first time that’s happened since the 1996-1997 season.
“Before this year, we haven’t lost to Syracuse in five years. It’s extremely difficult,” said Coach Brown. “You can’t bring a mule to the Kentucky Derby. You’ve got to have more kids.”
Georgetown will look to snap their losing streak in a must-win matchup this Saturday at home against Villanova at 2 p.m. (16-7, 5-5 Big East) if they wish to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament this March.
