Lady Dawgs Suffer First Loss

BASKETBALL

Jasmine James and Khaalidah Miller scored 16 points apiece for Georgia, but Georgetown's Sugar Rodgers countered with a season-high 23 to lead the Hoyas to a 64-56 victory in the opening round of the UNLV Lady Rebel Round-up on Saturday.

The setback was the first of the year for No. 10 Georgia, which fell to 4-1, while No. 21 Georgetown improved to 4-2. Jasmine Hassell added a dozen points for the Lady Dawgs.

The Hoyas used a strong second-half rebounding effort to build a double-digit lead the Lady Dawgs couldn't overcome. Georgetown out rebounded Georgia 23-13 after the intermission and for the game had one less offensive rebound than the Lady Dawgs had defensively.

"We've been talking about it since the beginning of practice and tonight, above everything we could've done better, was rebounding," coach Andy Landers said. "It was at the top of the list. And then we just didn't defend one-on-one very well in the last five minutes. Give Georgetown credit, they did what they needed to do when we got close."

A 10-0 surge early in the second half put the Hoyas up 45-35 with 13:46 left in the contest. Georgia pulled within five with 9:09 remaining but failed to pull any closer.
After the Hoyas expanded their advantage back to 11, the Lady Dawgs closed the gap to 59-56 on a pair of James free throws at the 1:55 mark, but Rubylee Wright answered with a layup deep in the shot clock on the other end to end the rally.

James helped Georgia get off to a quick start. She scored the Lady Dawgs' first seven points and then dished to Hassell for a lay-up that put Georgia up 9-2 at the 16:29 mark. Georgetown quickly knotted the score at 11-11 and the rest of the first half was a back-and-forth affair.

Rodgers, who averaged 18.1 points per game in her first two seasons at Georgetown but entered Saturday's game chipping in just 8.3 ppg this season, found her range late in the first half. She canned a trio of three-pointers in a span of 2:19 to help the Hoyas secure a 31-29 lead at the intermission.

Georgia will now face Northeastern in Sunday's consolation game at 4:00 p.m. ET.