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WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University women's basketball team fell the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers (9-1), 73-63, Thursday evening at McDonough Arena. A late run allowed the Golden Gophers to pull away dropping the Hoyas to 4-4 on the season. It marked the final nonconference home game of the season for the Blue & Gray.

"We didn't hit our defensive mark tonight," said Georgetown Head Coach James Howard. "They were an offensive team coming in tonight at 88 or 89 points a game and we were a defensive team coming in so it was a battle of wills. We gave up far too many points, so it's not going to change. We need to defend better in the next game against NC State."

Junior guard Dionna White (Baltimore, Md./Milford Mill) tallied her second-consecutive double-double with 23 points as well as 10 rebounds. Senior guard Mikayla Venson (Arlington, Va./Yorktown) added 17 points, while forward Cynthia Petke (Yaounde, Cameroon/-/Chipola) managed 12 points in the contest. Senior center Yazmine Belk (Queens, N.Y./Nazareth Regional) led the Hoyas on the boards with 11 rebounds to go along with seven points and five blocks.

Georgetown outrebounded the Golden Gophers, 41-33, but shot 36.2 percent (25-of-69) in the contest while Minnesota hit 52.6 percent (30-of-57) from the field. Carlie Wagner led the way for the Gophers with 31 points, hitting 12-of-14 from the floor and 7-of-8 from beyond the arc.

Trailing by as much as seven early in the contest, the Hoyas staged an 8-2 run cutting the deficit to one, 14-13. The run was sparked by a bucket from White, while Petke added a pair of scores. Minnesota answered with seven quick points, but Venson stopped the momentum with a 3-pointer with under 30 seconds remaining. Minnesota sank a free throw, but in the final seconds of the quarter, White weaved through the lane and made a layup to make it 22-18 in favor of the Gophers at the end of the first.

Minnesota scored first to open the second, but a 6-0 run from a combination of White and Venson tied the game at 24 at the 7:03 mark. The Gophers would answer with a layup, but the Blue & Gray was not backing down as a Venson free throw pulled GU within one.

White sank a pair of free throws to tie the game at 28 with 4:13 remaining in the half. Minnesota, once again, regained the advantage, but a trey from Venson made it 31-30, giving the Blue & Gray its first lead of the half which would stand at the break.

The lead would continue to go back and forth as neither squad could move ahead by more than four points. Late in the third, Wagner sparked a 14-0 run for the Golden Gophers with back-to-back 3-pointers. Petke added a late bucket to make it 54-43 in favor of Minnesota at the end of the third.

Georgetown cut the lead to nine on four occasions in the final stanza, however, the Blue & Gray would never find a way to move closer as Minnesota held on for the 73-63 decision.

Georgetown will head out on the road for a Sunday afternoon matchup with the NC State University Wolfpack in Raleigh, North Carolina. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. Live stats will be available at www.GUHoyas.com and the game will be broadcast on the ACC Network Extra.