An exciting Day 2 of the Women’s Big East Conference Basketball tournament was capped off by hard fought matchup, as the No. 4 ranked St. John’s Red Storm took down the Hoyas of Georgetown, 65-52.
The game was defined by the extraordinary offensive play by St. John’s senior guards Aliyyah Handford and Danaejah Grant.
Handford set the tone early with 11 of SJU’s first points, and finished with 22 points on 8 of 18 shooting from the field. Whereas Grant’s night was no less impressive; the senior guard scored 18 points on an efficient 7 of 12. Grant appeared to be able to get to the rim at will at certain points in the game.
“I just saw openings,” said Grant. “(Georgetown) wasn’t flawed in any area; I was just able to get into the gaps.”
Not only did Handford play a crucial role for SJU in the win Sunday night, but the senior eclipsed the career 2000 points mark.
“I wouldn’t have gotten there if it wasn’t for my teammates,” said Handford when asked about reaching 2000 career points. “They help me out a lot, so I give credit to them. It is a great way (for me) to leave St. John’s having over 2000 points.”
The most shocking stat of the night would be SJU out-rebounding the Hoyas, 36-31. Georgetown leads the BIG EAST in both defensive and offensive rebounds as well as rebounding margin.
“We made them take tough shots, and I thought in the second half we did a great job of staying in front of people,” said SJU head coach Tartamella. “We positioned ourselves much better to rebound the ball in the third and fourth quarter, which I thought helped us.”
Georgetown was statistically led by a wide variety of different underclassmen. Sophomore guard Dorothy Adomako led the Hoyas in scoring with 15 on 5 for 15 shooting, while freshman guard Dionna White added 10 points along with 5 boards and dished 5 assists.
Georgetown head coach Adair urged her team to keep their heads held high after the disappointing loss, and the coach believes that there are a lot of positives to take from the loss Sunday night.
“Our young stars here came to compete,” said head coach Adair. “If (the game) doesn’t go your way you find a lot of things wrong, but I found a lot of things right with our team. We don’t really do moral victories, but I saw my team fight today.”
St. John’s will advance to the semifinals to play the no. 1 seeded DePaul Blue Demons on Monday at 5:30 CT.
St. John’s is 0-2 on the season against the Blue Demons; losing on January 3rd, 71-61 at home, and in Chicago, January 31st, 77-71.