The Georgetown women’s basketball team (2-0, 0-0 Big East) picked up its second consecutive victory on Wednesday night, as they dominated the Virginia Tech Hokies (2-1, 0-0 ACC) 73-56.
Offensively, the Hoyas were able to move the ball at will, with six players recording five or more points during the weeknight showdown in McDonough Arena. Sophomore guard Dorothy Adomako put on yet another impressive performance, recording 19 points and six rebounds.
However, the main offensive catalyst for the Blue and Gray was undoubtedly freshman guard Dionna White, who accounted for an impressive 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists, and five steals. White seemed to do it all for the Hoyas, especially as she picked up more minutes in the second and third quarters.
“I knew [White] was going to be a great player coming out,” Adomako said of her new teammate. “I said it at Big East media day.”
The intensity and aggression of Dionna White was apparent on the court. As mentioned previously, White accounted for five steals for the Hoyas, which captured a great deal of momentum for Georgetown, and, conversely, was devastating to the offensive attack of Virginia Tech.
“She is aggressive,” Georgetown Head Coach Natasha Adair said of White. “That’s who she is. She came out of high school as one of the top players in the country and very active on the ball. She changed the momentum of the game, just because she was aggressive.”
The Hoyas’ depth played a major role last night’s victory. Including White, who did not start, the Georgetown bench accounted for 30 points, almost half their total production. White scored 16, senior guard Logan Battle picked up nine, and graduate student guard Jasmine Jackson scored five.
“We’re deep,” Adair said. “We don’t have one star on this team. We can look down [the bench], and everyone is on the edge of their seat, ready to come in and contribute. Even the ones that didn’t get in the game, they were into the game, cheering, talking, and encouraging their teammates.”
Junior forward Faith Woodard and senior forward Dominique Vitalis also were an integral part of the double-digit win for Georgetown. Woodard had 10 points and four rebounds, while Vitalis recorded nine points and an impressive seven rebounds.
Woodard’s incredible hustle on defense and clutch play on offense in the second and third quarters helped the Blue and Gray to outscore the Hokies 50-20 in the second and third. The Hoyas even captured a 19-point lead during the third quarter, much of it coming from White and Woodard.
Defensive play also remained a strength throughout the game for Georgetown. Virginia Tech junior guard Vanessa Panousis, a prolific three-point shooter, was held to four-for-seven on three-pointers and a total of 14 points and two assists, compared to the 18 points and six assists she put up against George Mason.
“Well, she came out hot,” Adair said of Panousis. “She doesn’t need daylight. You have to stretch out, and you have to get there. But when she made threes, we told them, ‘Don’t get your head down.’”
The Blue and Gray certainly did not let Panousis’s three-point abilities get them down, and their zone matchup defense effectively confused the Hokies and helped the Hoyas to limit Panousis to only two assists.
For the relatively young Georgetown team and with Adair only in her second season as Hoyas head coach, such a convincing team victory may prove pivotal to their future success as they travel to Memphis to face the undefeated Tigers.
“I asked them, ‘Doesn’t it feel good?’” Adair said, elaborating on the team’s post game talk. “I also told them that no one gave them this, that they worked their tails off for this. You forget how hard we work in practice when you experience this. Games should be easy; that’s the old cliché. But, they really should be. This win did so much for us as a group, and it’s going to propel us forward as we head down to Memphis.”
