Each Thursday over the summer, The Juice Online will be counting down the top 10 moments in the 2012-13 basketball season. We continue our countdown with No. 6, Syracuse’s game against Georgetown that set an NCAA attendance record.
WHAT HAPPENED: The final game regular season game at the Carrier Dome between rivals Georgetown and Syracuse as members of the Big East set a record for the largest crowd in the history of the dome.
On Feb. 23, 2013, a sold out crowd of 35,012 broke the Carrier Dome’s previous NCAA record for an on-campus college basketball regular season game of 34,616. The previous record was set on Feb. 27, 2010 when Syracuse hosted Villanova.
Plenty of Syracuse alumni were on hand, including Carmelo Anthony, who led the 2003 team to its lone national championship. He had his No. 15 jersey retired during a halftime ceremony.
“I can’t put into words how much this really means to me,” Anthony said. “It’s definitely one of the most memorable moments of my life, my career.”
» Related: No. 7 on our list is Syracuse topping Georgetown
Unfortunately, the game that was played on that day wasn’t as memorable.
Otto Porter torched the Syracuse zone, scoring 33 points on 12-of-19 shooting, including five 3-pointers, and the Hoyas pulled away in the second half for a 57-46 win.
Meanwhile, Syracuse went cold from the field, shooting an icy 34 percent. The 46 points marked SU’s second lowest total in a game at the Carrier Dome.
“Porter was so good today,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “He just dominated the game. He really won the game. He had to make plays and made them all day. Offensively, the games that we have lost we have struggled shooting the basketball, and today was no exception. I thought the game got away from us early.”
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WHY IT’S NO. 6: It’s definitely not a top 6 moment for the final outcome. The Orange couldn’t score for most of the second half, and had no solutions for Otto Porter. But any time SU packs the Carrier Dome to capacity, it’s going to be memorable, especially given that Georgetown was playing as a conference foe at the Dome for the last time. Those on hand were not only treated to Anthony’s appearance and jersey retirement, but also saw other members of the 2003 team including Gerry McNamara, Josh Pace, Craig Forth, Josh Brooks, Matt Gorman, Gary Hall, and The Juice Online’s Andrew Kouwe.
Check in next week as we reveal No. 5 on our countdown. Also Tweet us your memories from this game, or leave your comments below.
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