Georgetown women’s basketball (11-18, 4-14 BIG EAST) dropped another close contest against the Providence Friars (13-18, 5-13 BIG EAST) 66-62 on Mar. 1. After an early 14-0 run put the Friars up, the Hoyas led by graduate guard Kelsey Ransom, just didn’t have enough to close the gap and finish the job on Senior Night for the Hoyas.
No way to sugarcoat it, the Hoyas got off a rough start in this one.
After a three pointer from graduate guard Siobhan Ryan to open scoring, the Hoyas surrendered a 14-0 run to the visiting Friars. A midrange jumper by Hoya freshman guard Khadee Hession stopped the bleeding, and a Ransom and-one basket after helped, but the Friars refused to let the Hoyas get back into this one so easily. Every time the Hoyas would score, Providence would counter with their own punch, preventing consecutive baskets and maintaining a double digit lead by the end of the first quarter, 20-10.
Into the second, Hession again hit a big shot, this time from three to get the Hoyas’ deficit down to single digits. But while the Hoyas were able to eat into the Friars lead, nobody outside of Ransom was able to get going. The good news though? You can win a lot of games with tenacious defense and one Kelsey Ransom when she’s on her game offensively, and boy was the Hoyas defense tenacious.
It was evident very early on that this second period would not be like the first for Providence. The Hoyas invigorated press defense repeatedly gave the Friars issues, leading to turnovers as Providence struggled to get the ball inbounded, past half court, and out of double teams. Outside of senior forward Olivia Olsen, who had eight of the Friars twelve points in the quarter, nobody was able to get going for the road team. As alluded to earlier, Ransom was also excellent in this quarter, scoring 10 of her half-leading 13 in the second. The only issue was that Hoyas not named Ransom were 3-13 from the field, meaning that after a quarter where the Hoyas significantly outplayed their competition, they still looked up at halftime to see themselves down 32-27.
Into the second half, it was unsurprisingly Ransom who drew first blood, drawing the Hoyas within a possession on a putback layup. The Friars would again continue to keep the Hoyas at arms length with timely triples and and-one baskets to prevent the Hoyas from building momentum. Fortunately for Georgetown though, senior center Ariel Jenkins started getting rolling in the third quarter on her senior night, getting to the rim on multiple occasions to get herself into double figures by periods end. Even still, the Hoyas were down 48-42 heading into the stretch run.
In the final quarter, the Friars continued to keep Georgetown at arm’s length for most of the period, but Ransom’s heroics weren’t over quite yet. With the game at 58-52, Ransom hit a big three to get within a possession. The next possession a Ransom putback to get within one. Then after Providence went down and got a bucket of their own? Another Ransom bucket to get the game to 60-59.
Down the stretch though, the Hoyas just couldn’t find the punch to get them ahead. Providence would get the next four before Hession was fouled on a three. She made two free throws. The Hoyas got the stop they needed on the defensive end, but a Hession turnover with just ten seconds remaining sealed the Hoyas’ fate. When the final buzzer sounded, the Hoyas had lost 66-62 on their Senior Night. Ransom was spectacular with a game high 26 points and 10 rebounds, with Jenkins getting 10 and 8 of her own.
Next, the Hoyas head to the BIG EAST tournament in the hopes of stealing a NCAA tournament berth later this month. For continued coverage and updates on Georgetown sports, follow @GUVoiceSports on Twitter.
