Sugar Rodgers scores 24 points to lead No. 14 Georgetown over 4th-ranked Notre Dame 76-66
By APSaturday, February 20, 2010
Rodgers leads No. 14 Hoyas over No. 4 Irish 76-66
WASHINGTON — Sugar Rodgers scored 24 points to lead No. 14 Georgetown to a 76-66 upset over No. 4 Notre Dame.
Before this season, the Hoyas (22-4, 11-2 Big East) had been ranked for just one week in school history. Earlier this season, they reeled off a 16-game winning streak, and their current ranking is their highest ever despite dropping two of their last six.
Georgetown took a 58-47 lead with 8:17 remaining before a record crowd of 2,417 at tiny McDonough Arena. They withstood a late rally by the Irish (23-3, 10-3), who closed to 62-60 on Natalie Novesel’s two free throws with 5:21 to play. Georgetown scored the game’s last seven points to secure the win.
Adria Crawford added 18 points and Latia Magee had 17 for the Hoyas.
Ashley Barlow led Notre Dame with 21 points. Leading scorer Skylar Diggins was held to nine.
The Irish were playing their second straight game without Lindsay Schrader, the team’s third leading scorer and leading rebounder, who is out because of a sprained left ankle. Without Schrader, they lost 76-71 at No. 25 St. John’s on Tuesday.
After that loss, longtime coach Muffet McGraw implored her players to get mad in order to avoid the Irish’s first two-game losing streak of the season. Notre Dame hasn’t lost three straight games since the 2006-07 season.
The Irish lost for just the third time in 26 meetings with the Hoyas and the first time since Jan. 7, 2004.
Rodgers didn’t start for the first time because it was senior day and coach Terri Williams-Flournoy started seldom-used senior captain Kenya Kirkland instead. By the time Rodgers reported in, Notre Dame was leading 9-2, and then she got to work, quickly scoring 13 points and giving the Hoyas a 22-17 lead with 9:54 to play in the half.
Georgetown surrendered the lead late in the half, but Magee’s layup with 1:26 to go in the half gave them a 31-30 lead and lead 33-30 at the break.
Rodgers didn’t score again until her 3-pointer broke a tie and gave Georgetown a 45-42 lead with 14:50 to play, and quickly followed with a layup to make it 47-42.
