March 5, 2005

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HARTFORD, CT - Georgetown University's women's basketball team (12-16) fell 65-58 to Syracuse (13-15) in the First Round of the 2005 BIG EAST Championship held at the Hartford Civic Center. The sixth seeded Hoyas entered halftime up three, 34-31, but were outscored 34-24 in the second half in a game that saw 17 lead changes. Georgetown had defeated Syracuse twice earlier in the season and entered the Championship with its highest seed since the 1999-00 campaign when GU was seeded fifth.

The first half was nothing like the previous two contests between the Hoyas and the Orange when GU had outscored SU 80-34. This first half was a back and forth affair as both teams could not open leads larger than six points. Georgetown was behind 23-21 with 5:09 to play but a three from Kate Carlin gave Georgetown a lead they did not relinquish for the remainder of the half. Carlin, Varda Tamoulianis and Bethany LeSueur all hit for eight points in the first stanza while Chineze Nwagbo kept the 'Cuse close with seven points and eight rebounds.

Tamoulianis started the second half with a jumper to expand GU's lead to five and the Hoyas held a lead until the game was knotted at 40 with 14:29 remaining. The next six minutes saw three ties and five lead changes. With the game tied at 49 and 5:32 remaining SU s Nwagbo sank a shot to give the Orange a two-point cushion. GU missed three free throws in the next minute, including the front end of two one-and-one opportunities. The Orange did not sink a field goal for the final 4:18 but converted on 13 free throws while Georgetown could only muster eight points in those final four minutes.

LeSueur led the Hoyas scoring column with 16 for her 12th straight double digit scoring effort and was GU's top rebounder with seven. Tamoulianis had 15 points, Carlin had eight and Mary Lisicky and Kristin Heidloff each contributed six. With her six points Lisicky closed her Hoya career in a tie for eighth place all-time in Hoya scoring history with Maura Gill (81-85) at 1,295 points. SU was led by Nwagbo who recorded a double-double with a game high 19 points and a game high 13 rebounds.

Georgetown's second half shooting doomed the Hoyas as they hit just 10-of-36 attempts, including a 0-of-6 performance from beyond the arc. For the game Syracuse took 24 free throws and made 18 compared to GU's 4-of-11. Team rebounding was dead even at 40 with Georgetown grabbing 16 on the offensive glass.