Looking to rebound from Wednesday’s disappointing loss to Loyola-Chicago, Northwestern fell flat on its face and lost 82-58 to Georgetown Sunday afternoon. The Wildcats have now lost four straight games.

Junior forward Caileigh Walsh led NU (3-5, 0-0 Big Ten) with 13 points. Sophomore guard Caroline Lau also scored 11 points, shooting 3-of-6 from deep. 

The Hoyas (7-1, 0-0 Big East) roared to a fiery start, claiming a 14-4 lead at the under-five timeout of the first quarter. Georgetown guard Victoria Rivera started the game 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, scoring 12 points in just over five minutes. 

The ‘Cats finally put more points on the board after Lau drilled back-to-back 3-pointers — the second coming with a hand in her face. Another Georgetown run, however, meant the first quarter ended with NU down 22-13.

Georgetown started the second quarter on a 9-2 run before graduate transfer guard Maggie Pina nailed a trey to snap the three-minute streak, which cut the deficit to 31-18. Both offenses heated up in the second quarter, trading shots back and forth, but the Hoyas feasted on second-chance opportunities. They outscored NU 29-14 in the second quarter, shooting 10-of-15 from the field in contrast to the hosts’ five baskets. 

The teams went to the locker room at half with Georgetown leading 51-27. Guard Alex Cowan sank a 3-pointer as time expired to put the Hoyas up by 24, adding insult to injury. The Georgetown lead was trimmed to 20 points in the third quarter thanks to five from Lau and four from junior guard Hailey Weaver, who scored seven total points. 

The Hoya offense kept shooting well throughout the fourth and subbed in their bench with a minute and a half left in the game, comfortably securing the victory.

Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s game:

1. Goodchild makes first career start

Sophomore guard Alana Goodchild started Sunday in place of Walsh, who came off the bench. Goodchild scored the first basket in the contest, responsible for NU’s first — and only — lead of the game. 

The Sydney, Australia native has appeared in every game this season, but her minutes have seen an uptick in the past four games. She was on the court for 13 minutes against Florida State, 14 against Belmont, 18 against Loyola-Chicago and now 15 Sunday against the Hoyas, scoring four points. 

“We were looking to shake things up a little bit,” coach Joe McKeown said. “(Goodchild) has a scoring mentality, we’ve been struggling to score.”

 2. ‘Cats fell into a hole they couldn’t climb out of

This game was all but put on ice by halftime. Georgetown’s quick start, bolstered by a torrential downpour of three straight 3-pointers by Rivera, was not answered by Northwestern’s offense, which shot 1-of-4 and committed three turnovers in the first five minutes. 

Starting a game down 14-2 is certainly not a recipe for success — neither was letting the Hoyas get to the line and make 8-of-10 free throws in the first quarter. 

The second quarter wasn’t much better. Georgetown shot 10-of-15 from the field to NU’s 5-of-15. An 11-point second-quarter effort by Hoya guard Kelsey Ransom, punctuated by an end-of-half buzzer-beating 3-pointer, left the ‘Cats sitting in the halftime locker room down 24 — a mountain nearly impossible to ascend for any team. 

“We know we need to come out and be ready to play,” senior forward Jasmine McWilliams said. “A lot of these are mistakes that we shouldn’t be making, and we know we shouldn’t be making them, so we just got to lock in and be ready to play from the jump.”

3. Bench production

Northwestern saw points come from 10 different scorers today, a testament to McKeown’s team’s unselfish play. Lau, who led the team entering Sunday’s game with 7.4 assists per game, had four assists against the Hoyas. 

Walsh, coming off the bench, had 13 points on 3-of-7 shooting. Pina shot 3-of-4 from 3-point land and added nine points. Thirty-one of NU’s 58 points came off the bench Sunday.

The ‘Cats will now set their sights on their first Big Ten game seven days from now, a matchup with Maryland.

“We start Big Ten play next week,” McKeown said. “You better be ready to play.”

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Twitter: @HenryFrieman

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