“We knew we needed this win,” said Tia Magee (11 points, six steals). “We just tried to relax, play together and not try to force things.”
Sugar Rodgers, the Big East’s leading scorer, faced a box-and-one defense most of the game but it hardly slowed her down. She scored 23 points, making four of Georgetown’s season-high 12 three-pointers.
“Sug could have got open. She could have got more shots,” Magee said. “But she believed in her teammates. That alone just helped us to pull it all together.”
The Hoyas (14-4, 3-2 Big East) are known for their pressure defense, and Syracuse (12-7, 1-4) certainly had faced it often enough in recent years to know what to expect. Yet the Orange couldn’t seem to hold onto the ball against Georgetown and the Hoyas capitalized. Syracuse’s 30 turnovers led to 38 points for Georgetown.
But even more impressive than the Hoyas’ defense was their offensive performance. Georgetown is not a very good shooting team. The Hoyas have the worst field goal percentage in the Big East (.354). Yet, on this day, they seemingly couldn’t miss.
Georgetown made nearly 52 percent of its field goals in the first half before coming back to reality after halftime (33 percent) and finishing at 41.7 percent, the Hoyas’ third-best shooting percentage of the season and only the third time they’ve shot better than 40 percent in a game.
Magee had made only two three-pointers all season; yet she made two in this game. Rubylee Wright (17 points, seven assists) had made only three three-pointers in four Big East games; she made three in this game. Samisha Powell, who is averaging one point a game, made just her second shot from behind the arc this season.
“I hit that first three I had confidence. I was like okay,” Magee said. “And then Sug was like, ‘Tia, shoot it, shoot it, shoot it.’ ”
After the Hoyas’ poor start against Notre Dame, Georgetown Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy wanted her team to dominate the game from the tip, and the players clearly took that message to heart. Georgetown jumped out to a 9-0 lead, forcing Syracuse into 12 missed shots and eight turnovers to open the game.
It took nearly eight minutes before the Orange made its first field goal. Carmen Tyson-Thomas drove to the basket and was fouled making a layup. The Big East’s top free throw shooter sank her foul shot to cut Georgetown’s lead to 16-4.
Adria Crawford was a big reason the Hoyas got off to such a strong start. Since rejoining the starting lineup three games ago, Crawford has made her presence felt. She was extremely productive in the first 8½ minutes, scoring six points, grabbing two rebounds, blocking a shot and making a steal. She also took four charges in the game and might have had a fifth had a questionable blocking foul not gone against her.
“Dria just plays with so much effort and heart and desire,” Williams-Flournoy said. “She’s just our workhorse on the floor.”
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