The Georgetown women’s basketball team (10-11, 4-6 Big East) came away with a 62-53 win over Creighton (10-11, 4-6 Big East) on Friday night in McDonough Arena. Graduate student guard Dorothy Adomako led the way for the Hoyas with a 23-point, 13-rebound double-double, and senior guard Dionna White added 13 points of her own along with eight rebounds, seven assists, and five steals. Creighton was led by 17 points from junior guard Olivia Elger and 13 points from senior forward Audrey Faber.
“The last time we played them, they blew us out, and we didn’t like the taste in our mouths,” White said. “Having that on our minds, just coming back for revenge made us play harder.”
The opening five minutes featured little scoring, and Georgetown went into the opening timeout leading, 4-3, having forced four turnovers from the Bluejays. The Georgetown offense was better out of the timeout, scoring six points on their next three possessions to take a 10-3 lead, but Creighton scored four straight to make it 10-7. The Hoyas missed three free throws to end the quarter, but Adomako grabbed the rebound from one of them for a layup, and the Hoyas took a 12-7 lead into the break. While Faber had five points for Creighton, she went 2-of-5 and was made to work hard for her points the whole night by junior guard Morgan Smith.
“We tried to put another athletic kid who’s going to fight and work hard in there on her, and I think she did her work early,” head coach James Howard said of Smith’s defense on Faber. “She got [Faber] out of her game for a second or two, and that helped.”
Neither team scored in the second quarter until Faber hit two free throws at the 7:38 mark, and Creighton would make it a one-point game. Freshman guard Nikola Kovacikova responded, hitting two 3-pointers off the bench to give the Hoyas a spark, and Georgetown held a 20-14 lead at the media timeout. The Hoyas would finish the quarter on a 6-2 run, including a mid-range jumper at the buzzer from graduate student guard Mikayla Venson.
After being held scoreless in the first half, it only took White 10 seconds in the second to score her first points, getting a layup through contact and adding the free throw. This began an 11-3 run by Georgetown to start the third quarter, forcing Creighton into an early timeout. The Hoyas wouldn’t score for over three minutes after the timeout, but Creighton only scored four points in that time, and a corner 3-pointer from White soon made it a 40-23 game. Elger started to heat up and knocked down two 3-pointers and drew a foul on another long-range attempt, but the Bluejays were kept at arm’s length after a corner 3-pointer from senior guard Brianna Jones at the buzzer. Heading into the final period, the Hoyas led 45-30.
“Basically coach was like, ‘It’s 0-0. We need to go out there and start a run and don’t let them come out and get a run,’” Adomako said. “That was the mentality.”
Creighton brought the game within 10 after another Elger 3-pointer, but after a timeout, Venson hit a three, and White got a steal and layup to restore a 15-point lead with 5:37 to go. Adomako hit a 3-pointer to make the game 53-38 after another Creighton three, and the Hoyas looked to have an answer for everything Creighton threw at them until under two minutes to go. Creighton’s press forced turnovers from the Hoyas, and Georgetown’s 15-point lead with 2:39 became just four points after three Elger free throws with 33.8 seconds to go.
“We have tendency to stop playing,” Howard said. “We’ve just got this thing about us, we don’t know how to play in the fourth quarter to close the games, and that’s still concerning because you can be up 15, 16, and you relax. It’s no different than being up against DePaul 16, being up against Marquette 14, and you relax, or you stop doing the things that got you the lead.”
Creighton’s press forced White into a double team, but she was able to draw a foul and made one of her two free throws. The Hoyas corralled the defensive rebound after a missed 3-pointer, and Smith laid in the dagger with 10 seconds to go after the Hoyas nearly had a backcourt violation. Adomako wrapped everything up with two free throws, and the Hoyas were able to safely look ahead to Providence (13-9, 5-5 Big East) on Sunday.
“[Providence] took the loss at Villanova today. Knowing their coach, he’s going to challenge the team, and when he challenges them, it’s going to light a fire under them because everybody’s in the same position. If you’re not Marquette or you’re not Butler, right now everybody’s got one game away from being in the third spot,” Howard said. “He’s looking at, ‘Hey, we’ve got to have short term memory. We’ve got to come out, we’ve got to get a win against Georgetown,’ and Georgetown’s saying, ‘We’ve got to get a win against Providence.’”
The game on Sunday tips off at 2:00 p.m. ET in McDonough Arena. For live coverage of that game, as well as coverage of all of Georgetown’s athletic programs, follow @GUVoiceSports on Twitter.
