The Marquette women’s basketball team had arguably its biggest win of the season Wednesday night when it knocked off No. 17 Georgetown, 52-45, at the Al McGuire Center on the back of junior guard Angel Robinson’s eight points in the last 1:07.
Robinson, who had 20 points for the game, received the ball inside the free throw line with Marquette down 43-41. After an unsuccessful pump fake on her Georgetown defender, she put up a contested jumper that went through the nylon and got Robinson the opportunity for a three-point play. Robinson hit the free throw (she was 9-for-12 for the game), and Marquette never looked back.
Georgetown coach Terri Willaims-Flournoy said her team was lucky to contain Robinson for as long as they did.
“She’s a really good player,” Williams-Flournoy said of Robinson. “The last couple minutes of the game she was able to attack the basket and that’s what she does best.”
Robinson credited a renewed sense of urgency for her improved play in the second half.
“I was just really focused on my team,” Robinson said. “I played not such a great game in my eye — 12 turnovers, which embarrassed me. The positive is that I came back mentally and wasn’t as focused on my turnovers as much. I just began to focus on controlling the ball better.”
Georgetown came out in a 1-2-2 full court press to start the game, a press that forced nine Marquette turnovers in the first nine minutes of action. They continued the defense throughout the game and created 30 Marquette turnovers for the game. Georgetown wasn’t far behind with 26.
Georgetown freshman guard Sugar Rogers had 23 points for the night. She came into the game averaging 18.6 ppg. Senior guard Lauren-Thomas Johnson, the team’s second leading scorer with 13, was given the task of stopping Rogers at the end of the game after the team switched out of its zone.
“I was thinking more, ‘defense, defense, defense,’” Thomas-Johnson said in regards to her thoughts as the team made its comeback from five points down with 3:07 remaining. “Offensively I felt we could handle it, but I was just thinking, ‘defense, defense, defense.’”
Sophomore forward Jessica Pachko had two fouls early in the first half which allowed her to only play 11 minutes, recording just four points and two rebounds. Mitchell said it was a team effort to manage without Pachko for much of the first half because of the steady play of redshirt junior forward Jocelyn Mellen, freshman forward Sarina Simmons and junior forward Paige Fiedorowicz.
“Even though Jess (Pachko) wasn’t doing a lot of the scoring, Jocelyn was able to give us huge minutes and huge rebounds,” Mitchell said. “She scored four points in the first half which was big, and right now, I think everyone understands that we do everything as a team.”
Mitchell said her team would receive a “well deserved day off” Thursday and get back to work on Friday for the team’s upcoming game Sunday at DePaul.
