The Georgetown women’s basketball team (14-8, 6-6 Big East) saw its Big East winning streak come to an end with a loss to the visiting Creighton Blue Jays (17-6, 11-2 Big EasT) by the score of 67-59 in McDonough Arena on Sunday afternoon. The loss snapped the Hoyas’ five-game winning streak in the conference as they remain in sixth place in the conference. Georgetown junior forward Dorothy Adomako, who came off the bench, led all scorers with 19 points. Creighton senior guard Marissa Janning and junior guard Sydney Lamberty followed closely, recording 18 and 16 points, respectively. The Hoyas’ sophomore guard Dionna White contributed a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Creighton senior forward Brianna Rollerson had 13 rebounds and 11 points for a double-double of her own.
The first quarter saw a back-and-forth contest between the Hoyas and the Blue Jays. A basket and a foul shot from Adomako gave the Hoyas a 9-4 lead with under six minutes to go in the first quarter. That would be the Hoyas’ largest lead of the game. After trading baskets, with the Hoyas led by Adomako’s nine first quarter points, Creighton seized a 21-19 lead at the end of the period. They would not trail again in the game.
The teams continued to exchange points, until the teams were knotted at 25-25 midway through the second quarter. Then, the Hoyas began to struggle keeping pace with Creighton’s offensive attack. “They run a lot of motion,” said Georgetown Associate Head Coach James Thomas after the game. “A lot of pass and cut and they use their sides well.”
At that point, the Blue Jays went on a 10-2 run to take a 35-27 lead, and ended the half with a layup from Lamberty and a 37-29 lead. The Hoyas were plagued by poor three-point shooting, going 0-9 from beyond the arc and 12-34 from the field overall in the first half. “(We need to) get back in the gym and continue to work at it,” Thomas said. “We took some threes that normally we knock down and I think that was the difference in the game.” The Blue Jays excelled from three, going 4-9 and shooting 50 percent from the field, 16-32, in the half.
“You have to stay focused mentally, locked in,” Thomas said when asked about how the game got away from the Hoyas. “I think they continued to push and we got caught on some screens out there and next thing you know, you have a four point lead and then a ten point lead and then you’re playing from behind.”
The Blue Jays came out scorching in the second half, with Janning hitting a three-pointer to give the team a 13 point lead. They would extend the lead to 16 before a Hoyas run cut the lead to eight. Georgetown junior forward Cynthia Petke hit a three-pointer as the shot clock expired to cut Creighton’s lead to 49-41 with two minutes left to go in the third quarter. The crowd climbed back into the game, but only for a moment, as after the teams traded baskets, Creighton hit a three-pointer on the last possession of the third quarter, giving them 57-44 lead going into the fourth.
Unfortunately for the Hoyas, eight points would be the closest they would come to Creighton. The fourth quarter started slowly, with no points from either side for the first minute and 12 seconds. Creighton’s Brianna Rollerson scored the first points of the quarter after a beautiful pass led to her layup that put the Blue Jays up by 15. Petke responded with a jump shot and Dionna White made a nice inside move for a layup to cut the lead back to 11, but it was too little, too late for the Blue and Gray.
The Hoyas shot just 6-12 from the free throw line, and although the defense forced two consecutive shot clock violations, Creighton used up too much clock as the Hoyas were unable to inject their offense with enough urgency to come back. A late shift to a press defense proved unfruitful, and the game wound down without much fanfare to an eventual 67-59 victory for Creighton.
Thomas explained that he thinks the team needs to work on helping each other out on defense and making sure that defenders have each other’s backs.
“Just play together as a team,” Petke said after the game. “When they hit threes, as a team, we just need to figure out what to do on the court at that time and not let the lead keep stretching out. That’s what I took from the game today.”
After the quick turnaround from the Providence game Friday to the Creighton matchup on Sunday, the Hoyas will have four days of rest before traveling to face Seton Hall (11-12, 3-9 Big East) Friday at 7 p.m. in what is likely a must-win for the Hoyas to stay competitive in the Big East.
