Sugar Rodgers banked in a short jumper with 1:05 remaining to break a tie and No. 12 Georgetown rallied past Richmond 65-64 on Wednesday night.
The Hoyas (6-1), coming off an upset win over then-No. 4 Tennessee last Saturday, trailed 59-53 with 6:40 remaining, but closed with a 12-5 run. Tommacina McBride hit a short jumper for her only basket of the game to tie the score at 61, and Rodgers' shot gave Georgetown the lead for good.
Richmond (4-4) had several opportunities to win, but went the final 6:40 without a field goal. The Spiders' Abby Oliver was fouled on a 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds left and hit the first two free throws to make it 65-63. Oliver wanted to intentionally miss the third free throw, but she banked it in to cut the deficit to one.
Rodgers was whistled for a lane violation on her free throw with 1.2 seconds left, giving Richmond one final chance, but the Spiders' baseball pass was batted away.
Rodgers finished with 22 points on 8-of-19 shooting. Monica McNutt added 18 points, only four in the second half. Starting guard Rubylee Wright was held out due to an illness and her replacement, Morgan Williams, filled in with seven points and five assists.
The Hoyas led by as many as nine in the first half, but trailed 37-33 at halftime due to the performance of the Spiders' Brittani Shells, who scored 20 of her 26 points in the first 20 minutes. Shells entered the game as one of the top scorers in the country, averaging 21.7 points per game.
Georgetown stepped up its defensive effort on Shells in the second half only to see Oliver score 17 of her 22 points in the period to keep Richmond in the hunt.
