Georgetown vs. Connecticut: Top-ranked Huskies slog to victory

For the top-ranked Connecticut women's basketball team, just winning isn't good enough. For Georgetown, where winning is now an expectation rather than an aspiration, moral victories are no longer satisfying.

So both teams left jam-packed McDonough Arena with a bad taste in their mouths Saturday after the Huskies beat the 18th-ranked Hoyas, 52-42.

The Hoyas did everything they wanted to do with their pressure defense, holding the Huskies to a season low in points and forcing them into a season-high 26 turnovers. But Georgetown's own offensive struggles kept it from notching the biggest win in program history.

"Yes, it was a great effort, but I think we're past the days of measuring effort," Georgetown senior Monica McNutt said. "It goes down as a loss, and we gave it away."

As usual, three-time all-American Maya Moore led the way for Connecticut, finishing with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists.

Her team clinched the Big East regular season title, but there was no celebration. The Huskies are competing with their own legend now and they walked off the court Saturday as if they'd lost that battle.

"I think we did not execute the way we wanted to and it made it less sweet for us," Moore said. "We've never been a team that's solely focused on the win. It's always been how we win."

Georgetown never led Saturday, but the Hoyas kept sticking around. They were within 28-19 with less than a minute left in the first half, but a foul late in the shot clock led to two Connecticut free throws. Then Bria Hartley's three-pointer from the corner a second before the buzzer sent the Huskies into the half with a 33-19 lead and momentum.

"We can't have those type of mistakes," Georgetown Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said of the costly foul. "When you're playing a team like Connecticut, you can't do things like that."

It was Senior Day for Georgetown but the only senior, McNutt, had taken just one shot at halftime. She gave the team a lift after the break, though, making three straight three-pointers to cut the deficit to 35-28.

"We knew we were down 14, we had to come out firing and we wanted to cut the lead immediately," McNutt said. "My teammates found me, my coaches believed in me and I knocked down some shots."

But those were the only shots McNutt would make. Sugar Rodgers led the team with 16 points, but she shot 6 of 20 from the field. As a team, the Hoyas shot 25.9 percent and turned over the ball 18 times.

Still, they kept chipping into the lead, mostly because the Huskies were turning over the ball right back.

"It's unwatchable when it's like that," Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma said. "I think Georgetown had something to do with that, but whenever stuff like that happens it's not just one team. It's a combination of Georgetown playing really hard and being really aggressive in their traps and Connecticut players being kind of tentative and going backwards instead of attacking."

Connecticut (28-1, 15-0) remained undefeated in the brutal Big East. Georgetown (21-8, 9-6) fell to seventh, but Williams-Flournoy said that was still well within range of an NCAA tournament bid.

Connecticut	Georgetown
52	42