A breakout night for senior guard Mykia Jones led the Georgetown women’s basketball team (10-7, 2-5 Big East) to a 77-58 victory over Seton Hall (8-10, 1-6 Big East) on Sunday afternoon.
“We were just waiting for [today], for her to just relax and just let it go,” said Georgetown Head Coach Natasha Adair of Jones, who scored 20 points including 5-7 three-point shooting. “She had the hot hand and we fed it.” The outing was a career-high for Jones, a transfer from Wake Forest. Senior forward Faith Woodard also added 19 points, as well as eight rebounds and four steals. The Pirates were led by junior guard JaQuan Jackson, who had 19 points.
After being outrebounded badly by St. John’s (12-5, 4-2 Big East) on Friday night, the Hoyas won the battle for the boards, with 43 total rebounds to Seton Hall’s 31, including 19 offensive rebounds on 43 missed shots. Georgetown also stole the ball 15 times and capitalized, scoring 23 of their points off of turnovers.
“I feel like when we’re defending… and when we’re sharing the ball, it goes well for us,” said Adair.
The major discrepancies didn’t become apparent immediately though. The teams were closely matched though the first quarter, as neither managed to take a lead bigger than three points. The game was tied seven times in the period..
Jones’ remarkable shooting effort began in the second quarter, which the Blue and Gray used to open up a lead. In her nine minutes of game time during the period, Jones had 13 points on 4-6 shooting from the field, a rebound, an assist, and a steal. A strong all-around defensive performance from the team prevented any response from the Pirates, holding them to just 27 percent field goal shooting in the quarter, opening up an 11 point margin by halftime.
Photo: Alex Lewontin/The Georgetown Voice
The team did not lose any momentum during the intermission, and came out of the locker room swinging, outscoring Seton Hall 29-9 in the third. Early in the quarter, Woodard finished back-to-back-to-back layups through contact, each time converting the foul shot for the old-fashioned three point play.
“Our third quarters have been up and down, so I told them, this is a statement,” said Adair. “We’ve got to keep our foot on the gas… we said, let’s go on a run and make them call a timeout.”
Georgetown certainly answered Adair’s challenge, and held a commanding 66-35 heading into the final period. While the Pirates surged in the fourth, the 31 point margin proved too large to overcome.
The win comes at a crucial juncture for the Hoyas. After opening the season 8-2 in nonconference play, the team dropped its first four Big East games. The pattern is familiar to fans of the team, as last season was characterized by a strong non-conference start, followed by a weak opening to league play. The team was then able to right the ship and finish strong.
“I think [this could be the beginning of a resurgence],” said Woodard. “It’s been similar to how we played last year. As long as we keep our focus and keep going strong, I think we can keep the ball rolling and keep winning.”
The Hoyas will spend their next two games on the road, first at Xavier (10-8, 2-5 Big East) on Friday, January 20th, and then at Butler (5-13, 2-5 Big East) on Sunday, January 22nd. The match against Xavier will tip at 8:00 p.m. and will be broadcast on Fox Sports One.
