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WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University women's basketball team put together an incredible performance Friday evening handing the Marquette University Golden Eagles (13-6, 7-1 BIG EAST) their first BIG EAST Conference loss of the season with an 85-58 victory at McDonough Arena. The hot-shooting Hoyas were led by senior forward Cynthia Petke (Yaounde, Cameroon/-/Chipola College) who had a career-high 26 points as well as 13 rebounds to improve to 8-10 overall and 3-5 in league play.

"We knew coming in that they (Marquette) was a high-caliber scoring team with a lot of weapons at their disposal," said Georgetown Head Coach James Howard. "We zoned it up, mixing it up on them to try to take them out of their rhythm. The most important thing tonight was that our kids bought in and communicated for 40 minutes, which was huge."

Led by Petke's ninth double-double of the season, the Hoyas had three players in double figures. Junior guard Dionna White (Baltimore, Md./Milford Mill) managed 17 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals, and senior guard Mikayla Venson (Arlington, Va./Yorktown/Virginia) posted 16 points going 2-of-2 from beyond the arc. Senior center Yazmine Belk (Queens, N.Y./Nazareth) pulled down 10 rebounds, and sophomore guard Morgan Smith (Upper Marlboro, Md./Riverdale Baptist) added nine points and five steals.

The Hoyas outrebounded the Golden Eagles, 42-34, and shot 51.6 percent (33-of-64) for the game while allowing just 31.3 percent (20-of-64) shooting from the field from MU. The Blue & Gray forced 20 Golden Eagle turnovers off of 13 steals while turning the ball over 15 times in the contest. GU got out in transition with 22 fast break points to its credit.

Marquette scored early, but the penetration of White and a jumper from Venson made it 8-6 midway through the quarter. Petke was fouled on a shot and sank both free throws to give the Blue & Gray the four-point lead. The Golden Eagles tied it up on foul shots, but a short jumper from Smith gave the lead back to Georgetown.

Marquette moved ahead by as much as six, but in the final minute of play freshman forward Tatiana Thompson (Winter Haven, Fla./Winter Haven) sank a shot, and Smith nailed the buzzer beater from the corner to make it 22-21 in favor of the Golden Eagles.

Belk opened the second stanza with two points, and Smith added a jumper. Following some big defensive stops including a block by Belk and a drawn charge from Petke, senior DiDi Burton (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore City College Prep) hit a 3-pointer to make it 28-22 and force an MU timeout. Out of the break, White drove the lane and scored twice as the Hoyas built the 32-22 lead on an 11-0 run to begin the quarter.

The Golden Eagles scored, but a bucket from Petke kept the momentum with the Blue & Gray as GU maintained the 10-point lead. At 2:28, a Thompson trey from the corner sparked a 7-0 run to end the half as the Hoyas went into the break leading, 41-26. Georgetown outscored Marquette, 20-4 in the second quarter.

The Hoyas continued to look strong opening the second half building the lead to as much as 22, 52-30. The story was the defense, however, as big stops and defensive hustle allowed Georgetown to keep the momentum. In the third quarter, Georgetown managed to outscore Marquette, 27-11, to stifle any MU comeback.

The fourth quarter was much of the same as the Blue & Gray began to mix up the lineup and cruised to the 85-58 victory.

"We've been taking more shots from the field than most of our opponents, and that showed we hadn't been capitalizing on our opportunities," said Howard. "The defense has always been there, but tonight our big thee scorers shot the ball extremely well and we had a number of people add balance, which combined for a very good win."

Georgetown will be back in action on Sunday as the squad hosts the DePaul University Blue Demons at McDonough Arena at 2 p.m. Sunday's game will have Pat O'Keefe and Julianne Viani calling the contest on the CBS Sports Network. Live stats will also be available at www.GUHoyas.com.