After two sub-par games in the tournament, Georgetown’s Sugar Rodgers found her stroke just in time against the No. 4 ranked Tennessee Volunteers Saturday night at the Paradise Jam.
After scoring a combined 24 points in the first two games, Rodgers pumped in 28 to help the 12-ranked Hoyas pull off the shocker of the women’s tournament, beating the Volunteers 69-58.
Georgetown jumped on Tennessee from the start, and at the 17:45 mark in the first half, a Monica McNutt three-pointer gave the Hoyas an 11-4 lead. The Hoyas would push their lead to 10 on a Rodgers three-pointer with 7:20 left in the half, 23-13.
Tennessee’s Meighan Simmons came down court and fired a three and missed, but grabbed the rebound and hit a mid-range jumper to cut the lead to eight. But a few minutes later, another three from McNutt gave Georgetown its biggest lead of the first half at 26-15. A jumper from Tennessee’s Kelly Cain with 50 seconds left in the half pulled the Volunteers within seven, and Georgetown would take that margin into the break with a 29-22 lead.
Rogers came out firing in the second half, scoring 17 of her 28 points, including a layup with 17 minutes left to push the Hoya margin up to 12, 38-26.
Georgetown maintained a comfortable lead for a majority of the second half, and with an Alexa Roche steal that led to a layup, the Hoyas found themselves up by 17, 59-42. From that point, the Hoyas cruised to the win.
Behind Rodgers was McNutt, who finished with 13 points.
For Tennessee, Gloria Johnson had 13 points and 12 rebounds, followed by Simmons, who finished with 11.
The loss gave Tennessee a 2-1 record in the women’s Reef Division, tied with Georgetown. But the Hoyas were named th division winner, followed by Tennessee, Georgia Tech and Missouri, the latter two sharing1-2 records. Georgia Tech picked up its first win of the tournament Saturday, beating Missouri, 61-46.
In the tournament’s Island Division, West Virginia’s 64-53 win over Iowa State gave the Mountaineers the top spot with a 3-0 record. Iowa State was second with a 2-1 record, followed by Virginia, which finished with a 1-2 record after defeating Texas Christian University 59-55 Saturday and leaving them without a win for the tournament.
Rodgers was named most valuable player for the Reef Division. Joining her on the division’s all tournament team were Missouri’s Raeshara Brown, George Tech’s Alex Montgomery, McNutt, Tennessee’s Johnson and Simmons.
West Virginia’s Liz Repella was named MVP for the Island Division.
