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. 3, defeating Georgetown one final time.
WHAT HAPPENED: Georgetown figured it had the last laugh.
In two regular season games, the Hoyas pounded the Orange, once in the Carrier Dome, and again in the Verizon Center. The latter, coming on the final game of the regular season, was a humiliating 61-39 loss for SU.
Neither of those games was competitive and would’ve made for a lackluster conclusion to the rivalry.
Instead, the two teams would meet one more time as conference rivals in the Big East Tournament semifinals. And this time, the two teams played a game more on par with their history.
Brandon Triche, James Southerland and Baye Moussa Keita (shooting a perfect 7 for 7 from the free throw line) each scored 13 points, and the SU zone limited the Hoyas to 4 for 18 shooting from downtown as Syracuse edged the Hoyas 58-55 in overtime.
» Related: No. 4 is Syracuse defeating top-ranked Louisville on the road
“Just us losing last time by 20, that meant a lot for us to even get to play against them again,” Triche said. “Just reading comments from them, talking trash about us, it made it even more important to win a game like this.”
The two teams will never play as conference rivals again. Syracuse joined the ACC on July 1, while Georgetown will be part of a new basketball-centric league that will retain the Big East name.
So it was all the more fitting that this game was the finale. The teams, like they had so many times in the past, played into overtime.
And even then, the game wasn’t decided until Jabril Trawick’s halfcourt heave as time expired caromed off the backboard.
When the buzzer sounded, a Syracuse fan held a triumphant sign: “This rivalry is officially closed.”
“It’s a shame that they’re heading down to Tobacco Road for a few dollars more,” Georgetown head coach John Thompson III said. “This is a rivalry that means a lot to our program and to their program and to this conference.”
WHY IT’S NO. 3: It was sweet revenge for Syracuse, especially after the Orange laid two eggs against the Hoyas in the regular season. And it was an exclamation point into a rivalry that was filled with dramatic and memorable moments. John Thompson may have closed Manley Field House, but Boeheim stuck around long enough to close out the rivalry. Fittingly, the teams finished their time in the Big East splitting the 14 games they played against each other in the Big East Tournament. Georgetown forward Otto Porter said it best: “Anybody from Georgetown will tell you that they don’t like [Syracuse]. It’s the best rivalry in college basketball.” And in the final chapter, SU came out on top.
Check in next week as we reveal No. 2 on our countdown. Also Tweet us your memories from this game, or leave your comments below.
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