Five games in two weeks finally took their toll. In the final 30 minutes of a grueling stretch, a tired Syracuse team broke down and suffered another disappointing defeat in a tough regular season.

The Orange was slow to loose balls and a step behind the Georgetown attack on defense in the second half. And ultimately – with a chance for Syracuse to clinch a spot in the Big East tournament and, more importantly, to keep its hopes of securing an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament alive – the Hoyas wanted it a little bit more in SU’s final home game of the season.

‘It looked that way to me. Now whether that, I couldn’t tell you if that had to do with the number of games we had,’ SU head coach John Desko said. ‘Their sense of urgency was a little more than ours with all that was on the line for this game.’

The Hoyas’ entire season was on the line, as a loss would eliminate them from contention for the Big East tournament, and it showed in their 10-8 victory over No. 14 Syracuse in front of 4,806 in the Carrier Dome on Saturday. Though the Orange (7-6, 3-2 Big East) didn’t enter the game with the same desperation, it needed the win on Senior Day to boost its own shaky postseason resume. Instead, SU left with a loss after watching Georgetown (6-6, 2-3 Big East) dominate in the second half on faceoffs and break through offensively for eight goals.

The second-half dominance clinched the Hoyas’ first win in the Carrier Dome since 2006 and meant, at least for now, Georgetown remained in the postseason hunt.

‘We got the result that obviously we came here for and that’s we got a glimmer of hope,’ Georgetown head coach Dave Urick said. ‘We’ll just keep playing and see what happens as the season evolves.’

But Georgetown was eliminated after St. John’s defeated Providence 8-4 on Saturday. Syracuse held the advantage in goal differential to clinch the No. 3 seed in the four-team conference tournament, and St. John’s earned the No. 4 spot over the Hoyas because it won the head-to-head matchup between the teams.

Syracuse must take the same approach with just one game left in the regular season. The Orange’s at-large hopes are slimmer heading into its final game against Notre Dame next Saturday.

For the Orange, the defeat came down to the same problem that has haunted the team all season. After going 5-of-7 on faceoffs in the first half, the Orange’s success in the X vanished, and Georgetown won 10-of-14 faceoffs in the final 30 minutes.

Time and time again, the Orange lost the battles for loose balls off draws, leading to extended offensive opportunities for the Hoyas.

‘I thought they played a very good second half, really adjusted well on the faceoffs,’ Desko said. ‘Their guys really came alive there and got some possessions that they didn’t get in the first half.’

As Georgetown controlled possession after possession, the SU defense started to wear down.

The Hoyas scored four unanswered goals to turn a one-goal deficit midway through the third quarter into a three-goal lead 49 seconds into the fourth quarter. Syracuse responded with two goals from Bobby Eilers and Pete Coleman to cut the deficit to 7-6 with 11:23 remaining.

But Georgetown, which won 7-of-8 faceoffs in the fourth quarter, buried the Orange with three goals in less than three minutes to take a commanding 10-6 lead with under eight minutes to play.

GU attack Brian Casey scored the final two goals to put a dagger in SU’s chances of a fourth-quarter comeback. The second came just 15 seconds after the first as Casey streaked past the defense with ease, forcing SU defender Brian Megill to dive by the crease as he fired past goaltender Bobby Wardwell.

Megill could only punch the turf from his spot on the ground and then stand hunched over his stick for a moment, knowing the Hoyas were on their way to victory.

‘I think they kind of started to find our weaknesses a little bit, and they got a couple inverts and had a guy on the backside open and stuff like that,’ Wardwell said. ‘So I think that it was a little difficult to settle down, and we got a little antsy maybe towards the end.’

The freshman Wardwell was left to explain the upset, sitting to the right of Desko after the game.

Desko isn’t worried about winning tiebreakers to make the conference tournament. He said his players can only turn their focus to Notre Dame now, knowing they still control their own fate with a win over the Fighting Irish.

‘We just have to take care of business ourselves right now,’ Desko said. ‘There’s no other way around it.’

rjgery@syr.edu

Published on April 21, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu