Slow Start Ends Women's Basketball Tournament Run

NEWHALL, Calif. - No matter how good a basketball team is or how well they are playing entering a game, it is difficult to overcome a start that sees only six points in the opening quarter. The Georgetown College women's hoops squad found that out the hard was on Friday night in the Opening Round of the 41st Annual NAIA National Championship.

Georgetown (22-12) shot 2-for-17 in the opening quarter against Southern Oregon University (29-5), and the Tigers were out-scored in three of the four quarters as the Raiders of SOU took the win in the game, 65-59, to advance to the second round of the tournament.

Neither team scored in the opening three minutes of the contest, and it was GC's Jazzmyn Elston who converted a pass from Madison Darnell into the game's first points with exactly 7:00 remaining in the first frame. The Tigers defense did everything they could to keep the Raiders down, but Georgetown was unable to score again until the 4:29 mark when a pair of free throws from Grace White tied the score at 4-4. Defense continued to dominate the proceedings until the final 96 seconds when Southern Oregon found some life with a traditional 3-point play and a 3-point field goal to take a 10-6 lead after 10 minutes of play.

The first run of the game came for the Raiders, and it started with 8:36 to play in the opening half. SOU netted seven straight points to open a 17-8 lead, and the Raiders eventually opened a 12-point lead with 5:07 left, and Georgetown got no closer than six points for the rest of the quarter. The Raiders carried a 27-21 lead into the locker room at the half.

Sophie Smith pulled the Tigers within three less than two minutes into the second half, and moments later, Elston connected from long range to cut the Tigers' deficit to 31-29 with 6:53 to go in the third. SOU answered with a 7-0 run to stretch the lead back to nine, and the advantage eventually grew to as many as 11 before Georgetown clawed back to within eight at 43-35 with 10 minutes to play.

Georgetown tried to rally in the final frame. Elston cashed in a jumper to cut the deficit to 46-40 with 8:52 to play, and just more than a minute later it was Elston from beyond the arc to trim the margin to five. A 3-point play from Callie Jackson with 6:30 to play led toa 9-0 run that was capped off by a bucket from Elston with 4:57 on the clock that gave Georgetown a 52-50 lead. The Raiders tied the game and the Tigers reclaimed the lead on each of their next two possessions, and with 3:58 to go, Darnell put the Tigers on top 56-54. An AJ Stevenson layup pushed the Georgetown lead to four - their largest lead of the game, with 3:17 to play, but over the final moments, SOU put together an 11-1 run to close the game and take the 65-59 win.

Elston led all scorers with 19 points in the game, and Darnell chipped in 14. White led all Georgetown players with 11 rebounds, and she and Elston each had three assists.

Georgetown was 23-for-65 (35.4%) from the floor in the game, including 5-for-16 (31.3%) from long range. At the foul line, though, the Tigers struggled, making only eight of their 15 attempts (53.3%) .

The defeat ends the Tigers run in the tournament, and it also concludes their 2021-22 season.