NEW YORK – Senior guard
Dionna White (Baltimore, Md./Milford Mill) earned BIG EAST Conference Preseason honors at the league's annual women's basketball media day held at Madison Square Garden in New York on Thursday. Additionally, the Hoyas were picked to finish fifth in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches' Poll, receiving 52 points.
The event was attended by second-year Head Coach
James Howard, White, graduate students
Mikayla Venson (Arlington, Va./Yorktown/Virginia) and
Dorothy Adomako (Midlothian, Va. / Cosby) and junior
Anita Kelava (Zagreb, Croatia / Croatian National Team / Maine).
Earlier in the week, White was one of 20 student-athletes nationally named to the 2019 Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Watch List as announced by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). The annual award in its second year recognizes the top shooting guard in women's NCAA Division I college basketball.
Last year, White was the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year and a First Team All-BIG EAST honoree. For the Hoyas, she was named the Team MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and the Chief of the Charity Stripe. White led the Hoyas in scoring with 18.7 ppg and was second in rebounding with 6.5 rpg. She led the BIG EAST Conference in steals with 88, which ranked her 21st in the nation, and also had 99 assists on the season. At the line, White shot 80.5 percent (107-for-133) to lead the team.
Her steal average of 2.88 makes her seventh among active career leaders in Division I, and her 262 steals sit her at 17th among the active leaders. White is eighth on GU's all-time scoring list with 1,475 career points, and fifth all-time in steals. She also sits at sixth in free throw percentage (.790), 11th in assists (314) and 10th in 3-point field goals made (116).
Georgetown ended the 2017-18 season with a mark of 16-16 overall and 9-9 in the BIG EAST Conference. The team made history advancing to the BIG EAST Tournament semifinals for the first time in 19 seasons, and made it to the second round of the WNIT for the first time since 2009. It was GU's third-consecutive postseason berth. The squad graduated three seniors, but has a solid core of players returning in 2018-19 as well as two available transfers and talented newcomers.
Coming off a shared regular-season title, DePaul and Marquette were predicted to finish atop the BIG EAST standings in 2018-19. The preseason poll saw the Blue Demons and Golden Eagles with five first-place votes and 77 points apiece, while fellow 2018 NCAA Tournament teams Villanova and Creighton were slotted third and fourth, respectively. Creighton (53 points) squeaked by Georgetown, while St. John's was selected sixth. Butler, Seton Hall, Providence and Xavier rounded out the poll.
The women's basketball team will open the season Nov. 6 at Richmond before hosting Maryland-Eastern Shore on Nov. 9 at McDonough Arena. Season tickets and partial season plans are now available at WeAreGeorgetown.com/tickets.
