The Georgetown women’s basketball team (7-9, 1-3 Big East) fought back from a 15-point second-half deficit to take Saturday’s game at McDonough Arena from the Butler Bulldogs (7-9, 2-3 Big East). Senior forward Andrea White led all scorers with 25 points for the Hoyas.
The game featured a series of runs during which Butler tried to pull away but couldn’t because of the Hoyas’ solid defense and accurate shooting. Georgetown managed to battle back from deficits of 19, 14, and 10 points before sophomore guard Katie McCormick hit a three-pointer with 2:01 left in the game to give the Hoyas the lead for good.
“I give our players so much credit because they withstood the barrage of three-pointers from a really good Butler team,” said Georgetown Head Coach Jim Lewis. “We have a great group of young women, and we’re in a position where we’re getting better ,so good things are ahead of us.”
Much of the game swung on impressive three-point shooting from both teams. Butler started off the game in a rhythm from deep, going 9-18 in the first half. Their early hot shooting allowed the Bulldogs to take a 19-point lead by the midpoint of the first half. But the Hoyas managed to withstand this run until the shooting began to cool off. White then provided six points of a 12-1 run that saw the Bulldogs’ lead cut to only eight points with 2:38 left in the first half. From there, both teams struggled for decisive control, and they went into the halftime break with the score at 40-30.
The Hoyas responded to Butler’s early shooting by hitting 51.9 percent of their shots from the floor for the game as well as 50 percent of their three-pointers and 88.5 percent of their free-throws. The Bulldogs finished at 16 of 35 from three as they could not maintain their early form. Rebounding was another key factor, as the Hoyas dominated on the glass with a 40-24 rebounding advantage.
Butler would then go on another run to open the second half, taking a 14-point lead five minutes into the half. But, once again, the Hoyas responded, going on a 14-2 run powered by the scoring of White and freshman center Natalie Butler, who had six and five points respectively over this stretch. McCormick also hit a crucial three to turn the momentum for the Hoyas.
The Bulldogs would retake control of the game, however, to give themselves a 10-point lead. Again, the contributions of both White and Butler, along with the lethal three-point shooting of McCormick allowed the Hoyas to claw their way back into the game. It was with the score at 71-70 in favor of Butler that McCormick hit a three with 2:01 remaining to give the Hoyas a lead which they would hold on to for the rest of the game.
Following this play, White and McCormick each scored transition layups created by steals allowing the Hoyas to take control of the game. As Butler then started fouling to prolong the game, Georgetown went 8-8 from the free-throw line over the closing seconds to put it away, with a final score of 85-79.
The victory ended a six game losing streak for the Hoyas, four of which were by only two points. It also marked the team’s first Big East win of the season. Next, the team travels to take on Providence on Wednesday.
