The women's basketball team will look to rebound after a 75- 68 home loss to the DePaul on Tuesday as the Pirates will host Georgetown on Saturday.
The Pirates (10-5, 1-3 Big East) have been led this season by sophomore guard Tabatha Richardson-Smith and redshirt junior point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons.
Richardson-Smith has emerged as a real scoring threat in her second season as she leads the team in scoring and is second in the Big East, averaging 18.1 points per game.
Simmons, the reigning Big East Player of the Week is averaging 15.9 points and dishing out 5.9 assists per game, which is tops in the conference.
Simmons has gotten into a groove offensively, scoring 23 points per game in the team's last two outings. She scored a game high 21 points in the team's loss to the Blue Demons.
In that game, the Pirates surrendered 12 3-pointers to DePaul, but that will not be the biggest priority against the Hoyas, who have made the fewest 3-pointers in the Big East, entering Wednesday.
"Defending the lane is key against Georgetown," head coach Tony Bozzella said. "We just have to be ready to guard the post. We're most concerned about their bigs."
The Hoyas (7-10, 1-4 Big East) have tremendous production from forwards Andrea White and Natalie Butler. The two combine for 30.5 points and 22.3 rebounds per game.
The Hoyas are coming off a 70- 61 loss to Providence on Wednesday.
Butler continued her dominance on the boards, grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds and notching 13 points in the loss.
White recorded a double-double, scoring 21 points and corralling 11 rebounds.
Butler, a freshman and reigning Big East Rookie of the Week, has taken the Big East by storm and is the conference's leading rebounder with 13.4 boards per game. White was named to the Big East Weekly Honor.
This is her sixth Rookie of the Week award and she now sits four behind Maya Moore's league re- cord of 10 Rookie of the Week honors set in the 2007-08 season.
"Butler is quite a talent," Bozzella said.
The Hoyas are also protect the rim, leading the Big East in blocks. This could cause trouble for the Pirates who rely on Simmons to drive into the lane.
The Hall can take advantage of the turnover-prone Georgetown. The Hoyas have the lowest turn- over margin (-6.13) in the conference before Wednesday's game.
"We'll play our game and I think our tempo can be really good in this game," Bozzella said. "We have to refocus and shoot the ball better.
Bozzella is referring to the team's 37.5 percent shooting from the floor, and the team's 21.1 percent shooting from beyond the arc in the loss to the Blue Demons.
Tip-off is set for noon on Saturday.
T.J. Brennan can be reached at thomas.brennan@student.shu.edu.
