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WASHINGTON - The Georgetown University women's basketball team fell, 71-63, to the St. John's University Red Storm (15-11, 8-7 BIG EAST) on Sunday afternoon at McDonough Arena. With the loss, the Hoyas drop to 11-13 overall and 6-8 in BIG EAST Conference play as the squad enters the final four games of the regular season fighting for BIG EAST Tournament seeding.

"St. John's played well today in their system, and I know defensively we didn't meet our goal," said Georgetown Head Coach James Howard. "We gave up 71 points which is far off what we try to do. We had 17 more shots and we're not capitalizing on opportunities and attempts at the rim. When you're playing a good team, you have to make your free throws, your layups and your open jumpers and we didn't today."

Senior guard Mikayla Venson (Arlington, Va./Yorktown/Virginia) led the way with 18 points, hitting 8-of-9 at the charity stripe. She also added five rebounds. Junior guard Dionna White (Baltimore, Md./Milford Mill) managed 17 points, six rebounds and three assists as well as two steals. Senior forward Cynthia Petke (Yaounde, Cameroon/-/Chipola College) tallied her 13th double-double of the season with 12 points and a team-best 11 rebounds. She also had two assists and three steals.

The Red Storm outrebounded the Hoyas, 39-32, but GU forced 19 turnovers on eight steals while committing just 10 turnovers in the contest. Georgetown shot 33.9 percent (21-of-62) from the field, but allowed 48.9 percent (22-of-45) shooting from St. John's.

St. John's jumped out to an early lead as the offense struggled to get it past the Red Storm's big defenders down low. Georgetown trailed by as much as eight for much of the first quarter until a jumper from White and a steal from sophomore Morgan Smith (Upper Marlboro, Md./Riverdale Baptist) which turned into another White layup cut it to four, 19-15. St. John's would manage one more score making it 21-15 at the end of the stanza.

A jumper from Smith to open the second quarter once again cut it to four, but St. John's answered with a 7-0 run. It remained an uphill battle for the Blue & Gray as the Hoyas tried to weather the storm on defense and find some buckets on the other end. Looking at an 11-point deficit with 2:02 to play in the half, senior guard DiDi Burton (Baltimore, Md./Baltimore City College) scored a jumper followed by a White buzzer beater to make it 32-26 going into the break.

St. John's sank a free throw to begin the third quarter, but Georgetown continued its momentum with a layup from White and 3-pointer by Venson to cut it to two, 33-31. It remained a one or two possession game throughout the stanza, until a late 8-0 run from the Johnnies.

Georgetown fought to stay in it and trailed, 50-40, at the end of the third quarter.

Back-to-back layups from Petke cut the lead to six, 50-44, to begin the final stanza and forced a St. John's timeout. The Red Storm answered to regain the 10-point advantage, and Georgetown would never get close enough to make the comeback as the Hoyas eventually fell, 71-63.

The Hoyas will be back in action on Sunday as the squad travels to DePaul University next Friday for an 8 p.m. ET matchup with the Blue Demons. The game will be broadcast live on the BIG EAST Digital Network (BEDN) with Dave Bernhard and Patricia Babcock McGraw calling the action. Live stats will be available at www.GUHoyas.com.

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