WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Navy women’s basketball team dropped its final game before starting Patriot League play with a 74-47 decision at Georgetown on Sunday afternoon. The Hoyas (7-3) used a hot start and an uncharacteristic strong three-point shooting effort to down the Mids (0-11), who struggled to find a second scoring option in the contest at McDonough Arena.
Maren Louridas (Fr., Delmar, N.Y.) paced Navy with a 21-point outing. The freshman sharpshooter went 8-14 from the field and 4-9 from three-point range, while grabbing a team-high five rebounds. In 12 minutes off the bench, Savanna Lewis (So., Los Lunas, N.M.) posted a well-rounded stat line of four points, four rebounds and two assists.
“Georgetown shot the ball really well,” remarked head coach Tim Taylor. “They had a player that came in shooting 1-of-20 for the year from three and she starts off making two three-pointers in the first half. That’s what they do in their house. We started off in zone because we were worried about their size and they come out and hit seven three-pointers in the first half. Those were shots that we were trying to force them into taking; they ended up hitting nine for the game. For stretches I thought we played well, I really did. I thought when we slowed it down, were patient, passed the basketball and ran the sets that we wanted, we found really good shots. Early in the game, we missed some easy layups that against a team of this caliber you can’t miss. They’re extremely experienced.
“I thought one of the positives for us, outside a three-possession stretch, was that we held them to only nine offensive rebounds. I felt like we got better there. I thought we improved defensively when we were in man. Maren was shooting the ball well today. We have to be more consistent throughout our lineup, though.”
The hosts opened the game fast as the Hoyas posted 12 of the first 15 points over the initial 3:48. The freshman-to-freshman connection of Kate Samson (Richmond, Va.) to Louridas clicked to end the Hoyas’ scoring run as Samson quickly whipped a pass out of the deep post to a wide open Louridas on the wing for a three-pointer at 4:58 to make it a 12-6 score. Georgetown had an immediate response to Navy’s basket and rattled off a 7-1 run to extend its advantage out to 19-7 by the 2:34 mark. Solid defense down the stretch by the Mids held the Hoyas scoreless for the remainder of the period, while Louridas was able to individually lop three points off of Navy’s deficit.
Down 19-10 through one quarter of play, the Mids were unable to build off that late momentum in the early portion of the second period as the Hoyas darted out to a 17-point lead, 27-10, by 6:48. A short 6-2 response by Navy over the next two minutes helped the visitors draw back within 13, 29-16. Sydne Watts (Jr., Canton, Ga.) was a catalyst for the Mids during this run as she grabbed an offensive rebound and quickly got a shot up for a basket at 6:31 before she sank both of her foul shots at 5:24. The dangerous Hoya team re-asserted itself on the offensive end of the court and re-built its lead out to 23 points by the intermission with a 13-3 close to the quarter.
Trailing 42-19 coming out of halftime, Navy posted its most prolific scoring quarter of the game on Sunday as the Mids netted 17 points led by Louridas’ eight-point effort. The freshman guard made three field goals, including a pair of treys. Georgetown had an answer to most of Navy’s output as the Mids were only able to shave one point off of its deficit and made it a 58-36 score after 30 minutes of action.
Navy continued battling throughout the remainder of the game and held Georgetown without a field goal for the final 4:57 of the fourth quarter. Unfortunately for the Mids, the Hoyas were productive over the first half of the final period and made five field goals in the first 5:03. For the entirety of the fourth quarter, Georgetown outscored Navy, 16-11 to earn the 74-47 victory.
Georgetown outshot Navy 45.8 percent (27-59) to 40.0 (18-45) from the field, 47.4 percent (9-19) to 22.2 (4-18) from three-point range and 61.1 percent (11-18) to 58.3 (7-12) from the foul line during Sunday’s contest.
The Hoyas also won the rebounding battle 34-31 on the strength of a 9-5 edge in offensive rebounds. Nine different Mids collected caroms with Louridas (5), Schrader (4) and Lewis (4) leading the way.
“This is a process,” reflected Taylor. “You can’t speed this process up for freshmen. A lot of this is getting game reps and playing at game speed. It’s seeing things, being put in different situations and gaining experience. Throughout our roster we don’t have a ton of experience, even our upperclassmen. COVID, injuries, things like that have us still learning and trying to gain experience. We’re continuing to work hard and get better. It’s not showing on the scoreboard yet so there’s not that immediate gratification. We have to continue to practice and do the right things.
“I saw some things today that we’ve been working on in practice and in film and we did it in real-time, that’s good. I think Georgetown’s size and athleticism bothered us. We were a little careless with the basketball as far as not being strong with it. Those are things that we’ve been talking about and we got exposed. Some things that they used to be able to do in high school now they’re getting exposed.”
Navy will step away from the hardcourt for two and a half weeks as the team will break for final exams and the holidays before turning its focus to Patriot League play. The first conference game of the 2022-23 season for the Mids lies ahead on Friday, Dec. 30 when the Boston University Terriers come into town.