NEW YORK – Georgetown junior forward Jeff Green lived up to his new title as Big East player of the year Friday night, scoring a career-high 30 points – including the game-winner with 13 seconds remaining – to lead the top-seeded No. 9 Hoyas (25-6) to an 84-82 victory over fourth-seeded No. 20 Notre Dame (24-7) in the Big East tournament semifinals.

“Jeff was huge tonight,” Georgetown junior guard Jonathan Wallace said. “He was very active both offensively and defensively. He drew a lot of attention in the middle and made guys come after him. In the second half, he was able to get the inside-outside battle going and make some key shots down at the end.”

In tonight’s title game, Georgetown will take on third-seed Pittsburgh, which defeated Louisville in the late game Friday night to advance. The Hoyas are making their first appearance in the championship match since 1996, while the Panthers have advanced to the final in six of the last seven years. Georgetown has not won the conference tourney since 1989, the last time they entered as the No. 1 seed.

“It means a lot,” junior center Roy Hibbert, who had six points, said of getting to the finals. “I saw Jerome Williams in the crowd and he and Allen [Iverson] were on the last team to play in the championship, so it’s good to see him here, but we’re just going to keep working hard and try to take home the win for Georgetown.”

The Hoyas, coming off a win over Villanova that started as a blowout and ended as a nail-biter, had the tables turned on them by the Fighting Irish. On Friday it was Notre Dame that jumped out with the big lead, going up by as many as 14 late in the first half, as the Irish seemed unable to miss from three-point range.

But Georgetown battled back and trailed by only two, 46-44, at halftime, thanks to outstanding first-half performances by Green and freshman forward DaJuan Summers, who had 17 and 14 points in the half, respectively.

“When teams come out the way Notre Dame did tonight, coming out really hot, you’ve just got to withstand the run, not get too far behind, just keep the game at a reasonable amount, come into halftime and just keep chipping away and grind it out until the end,” said Wallace, who finished with 10 points.

Georgetown kept grinding, and for the first 14 minutes of the second half the contest remained close, with four ties and 10 lead changes, and neither team able to open up more than a three-point lead.

Then it looked as if the Hoyas were going to pull away, as back-to-back baskets by Green and junior forward Patrick Ewing Jr., who tied his career high with 15 points, gave Georgetown a seven-point lead with just five minutes on the clock.

But a series of fouls and turnovers by the Hoyas allowed the Irish back into the game, with Notre Dame tying the game on two straight baskets by freshman guard Tory Jackson (20 points).

“We were riding him there and he’s a fearless young man,” Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey, the Big East coach of the year, said of Jackson’s seven straight points. “There’s a toughness factor that he’s brought to our basketball team.”

Notre Dame took the lead briefly on a jumper by junior forward Rob Kurz, but Wallace responded with a runner to tie the game at 78-all, and then the Hoyas took the lead again on a short jump shot by Hibbert.

Notre Dame once again came back to force a tie when freshman forward Luke Harangody was awarded free throws on a controversial fifth foul call on Hibbert and Jackson scored on a driving layup. But the Hoyas found Green in the paint with 13 seconds left, and the 6-foot-9 forward scored the clutch bucket, as he was fouled by Harangody, to give Georgetown its two-point final margin. Green missed the ensuing free throw and senior guard Russell Carter had a clean look at a three with five ticks left on the clock, but his attempt at a game-winner rimmed out, the long rebound ending up in the hands of Wallace.

“We knew that was how the game was going to be,” Summers said of the back-and-forth nature of the game. “We beat them pretty badly the first time we played, so we knew they were going to come at us, kind of as revenge for them, but we just knew that was the style of game that was going to be. We knew however many we got up, they were going to keep coming back and vice-versa.”

Green led all players with his 30 points and 12 rebounds, his first double-double of the season. Summers finished with 18, matching a career high, to go along with Wallace’s 10 and Ewing’s 15, to give the Hoyas four scorers in double-digits for the second time in as many games. Georgetown moved to 5-0 when Green scores 20 or more.

Ewing, whose father sat courtside, will be the first son of a Big East player to compete for a Big East title.

The Irish were paced by Carter, who had 21 points (including five treys), with Jackson right behind at 20, senior guard Colin Falls with 14 (including four three-pointers) and Harangody rounding out Notre Dame’s double-digit scoring with 11.

On the game the Hoyas shot 52.5 percent, with the Irish hitting 39.7 percent from the field and a nearly identical 38.5 percent from three-point range. Notre Dame outrebounded Georgetown 39-34 and had fewer turnovers, but the Hoyas picked up 23 second-chance points as Georgetown played a more up-tempo game to claim its fourth straight victory over Notre Dame.

The Hoyas fell to Pittsburgh 74-69 on Jan. 13, but then defeated the Panthers 61-53 on Feb. 24 to effectively win the Big East regular season title. Green propelled the Hoyas to victory in that big game as well, scoring 11 second-half points.

Tip-off at the world’s most famous arena is set for 9 p.m.