The Georgetown women’s basketball team may not have been competing for a spot in the Big East tournament in its final game, but the Hoyas had something else very special on their minds: senior day.

Though Georgetown was unable to pull out a victory over South Florida Tuesday night, falling 71-57 to the Bulls, the Hoyas put up a valiant effort, led by their three seniors: guards Leslie Tyburski and Bethany LeSueur and center Christine Whitt.

“I commend Georgetown because their season’s done,” South Florida Head Coach Jose Fernandez said. “I commend their coaching staff and their players on how hard they competed and played.”

Although the Hoyas (10-17, 3-13) were down by double digits to the Bulls (19-10, 9-7) with a minute left, the fans at McDonough Gymnasium saved their best cheers for last.

“Thank you, Leslie.” Clap clap, clap-clap-clap.

Tyburski was a reliable presence in her 27 minutes on the court, including a pair of nice steals.

A team captain, Tyburski always provided the Hoyas with a kind of maternal support on the sidelines. Indeed, Tyburski earned the “Unsung Heroine” award her sophomore year for the positive attitude which has been her lasting contribution to the Hoyas, rather than statistics.

Then, “Thank you, Bethany.” Clap clap, clap-clap-clap.

LeSueur finished the game with 10 points, slightly below her season average of 11.9.

LeSueur, also a captain, transferred to Georgetown after a year at Virginia and took full advantage of that second chance to make a name for herself as a Hoya. Not only did she rack up 800 points, 400 rebounds and 200 assists in three years here – only the seventh Hoya to reach those numbers – but also her 158 career steals are the 14th best ever at Georgetown.

As usual, old friend and teammate Mary Lisicky (MSB ’05), another prominent name in Hoya hoops, was looking down on LeSueur from the stands, shouting and waving a homemade sign.

All in all, it was an emotional night for LeSueur.

“It’s been a hard season, but, it’s just hard – the things you’ll miss,” she said. “The teammates I had, the coaches I had. . I mean it’s just been . bittersweet.”

And finally, “Thank you, Christine.” Clap clap, clap-clap-clap.

The 6-foot-4 fifth-year senior finished with a career-high 12 points on 6-for-7 shooting. At one point she had made six straight jumpers, all outside of the paint, as her father watched from the stands.

“I told her she only shoots well when her dad is there,” Georgetown Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said, smiling. “We probably should have flown her dad in a little bit more.”

Whitt wowed the crowd with her performance, but her coach was not surprised by her scoring outburst.

“She got into a rhythm. She got her outside shot,” Williams-Flournoy said. “It’s nothing that we hadn’t seen in practice. We had just finally seen it in the game.”

The Hoyas shot well overall through the first 27 minutes of the game. With 35 points at halftime, Georgetown was one point shy of its highest mid-game total during conference play.

South Florida was leading 42-35 at the end of the first half, but Georgetown thundered back with a 18-8 run, sparked by Whitt, to get the second half started. By 13:12, the Hoyas were only down by one point, 54-53.

After that basket, a layup from Hoya sophomore guard Kristin Heidloff, Fernandez called a timeout that turned out to be the turning point of the game.

“It was all about effort at that point. I just thought we weren’t defending,” Fernandez said.

Refocused, the Bulls took off on a 15-0 run, effectively putting the game out of the Hoyas’ reach. During that seven and a half minute stretch, Georgetown missed eight straight shots. eanwhile, South Florida forced three turnovers, grabbed two offensive rebounds and swatted two blocks – altogether ruining 15 Hoya possessions to go up 69-53.

Talk about defending.

“They had pretty good looks but they couldn’t knock it down,” Williams-Flournoy said of her players. “That’s been our downfall all season.”

The other key to the Bulls’ 71-57 win was simply that they took more chances behind the three-point line, and it paid off. South Florida made eight treys in 22 attempts, while Georgetown was an unusually low 1-for-5 from beyond the arc.

The Bulls’ freshman guard Jessica Jackson provided most of that power. Making a rare start in place of injured senior Ezria Parsons, Jackson finished with 21 points, including six three-pointers.

“Georgetown has really been a zone-oriented team all year long, so we just went with a smaller line-up,” Fernandez said of the 5-foot-6 Jackson. “She feels comfortable playing against zones. That’s what she’s done well for us this year.”

South Florida’s other Jessica, senior forward Dickson, happens to be the nation’s leading scorer, and she matched her average with 22 points on the night.

But her Georgetown counterpart, sophomore forward Kieraah arlow, one-upped Dickson with 23 points and 10 rebounds for her fourth double-double in six games.

“Coach always says we worry about how to stop people, but in the same respect people gotta worry about how to stop us, how to stop Ki,” LeSueur said.

Or, how to stop sophomore guard Kristin Heidloff. Heidloff has remarkable ball handing skills, whether she is beating out a defender with a quick step and behind-the-back dribble or dishing out dimes with uncanny accuracy. Heidloff entered the game with a 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio, 13th best in the country. In the Big East, Heidloff ranks third in both total assists (130) and assists per game (4.81).

So, despite a bout of the flu that had forced her to miss two practices earlier in the week, Heidloff put in a seven-assist, zero-turnover performance over a grueling 32 minutes. According to her coach, Heidloff had not missed a practice all season.

It is that kind of dedication that, when reflecting on the season, Williams-Flournoy finds comforting.

“I just want to give credit to my players,” she said. “We knew coming in with eight players this was going to be tough. We’re playing in one of the toughest conferences. Are we a 10-17 team? Probably not. . It was a tough season, and I just want to give credit to them for hanging in there and stepping up.

“And they never once complained,” Williams-Flournoy said. “Never once.”

Hoya Notes: While the Hoyas, who finished 13th in the conference, will not move on to the league tournament, the Bulls are getting ready for their first trip to the Big East tournament, held in Hartford, Conn. As the seventh seed, South Florida will face tenth-seed Notre Dame at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Also matching up on the first day are Louisville (5) and West Virginia (12) at noon; Villanova (8) and Marquette (9) at 2 p.m.; and Pittsburgh (6) and Cincinnati (11) at 8 p.m.

No. 7 Rutgers, which earned the Big East regular-season title with a perfect 16-0 record, is the top seed. No. 8 Connecticut, No. 15 DePaul and St. John’s, the second through fourth seeds, also earned first-round byes.

The tournament continues through Tuesday, when the championship game will be televised on ESPN2 at 7:30 p.m.

All times are Eastern.