NEW YORK – Making up for a lackluster performance at South Bend six weeks ago, Brandon Bowman poured in a season-high 25 points to lead Georgetown to a 67-63 victory over Notre Dame in the first round of the Big East tournament.

Bowman drove under the basket and nailed a left-handed layup to give the No. 23 Hoyas a 66-63 lead with 26 seconds to play.

“Torin [Francis] rode him into the cheerleaders,” Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey said. “He hit a lefty runner. That’s just talented play. We can’t do much better there.”

The 6-foot-9 Bowman shot 9-of-17 from the floor on Wednesday afternoon at the Madison Square Garden, a stark contrast from the 2-of-9 effort he put up against the Fighting Irish on Jan. 24, an 85-82 Georgetown win in double overtime.

Bowman had few miscues, gathering loose balls, getting tips and committing just one turnover – nothing reminiscent of the last-second foul he had on junior guard Colin Falls that allowed Notre Dame to complete a four-point play and force overtime in the teams’ first meeting.

“I thought Brandon had a special performance today,” Head Coach John Thompson III said. “Not just the points – I told him in the locker room he made smart plays. He got it there, threw the right passes, got big rebounds when we needed it.”

The Hoyas recovered well from a disturbing loss to South Florida on Saturday. The regular season closer had seen the Bulls (7-22, 1-15) earn their first conference win as a member of the Big East.

After putting up just four three-point attempts at USF, the Hoyas came out firing from the perimeter against the Irish. But Georgetown was trigger happy in the opening minutes, missing its first 12 shots – six from beyond the arc – and allowing Notre Dame to mount an 11-0 lead.

The Hoyas fought back, slowly closing the gap as sophomore Jeff Green dropped 10 points and Bowman added eight more. Bowman completed a three-point play with 1:07 to play in the first half, giving Georgetown its first lead of the game, 27-26.

“They really stayed with their game plan and how they wanted to play, even when we got off to a great start,” Notre Dame senior forward Chris Quinn said.

The Irish took back the lead on the last two possessions of the half, as senior forward Rick Cornett netted a layup over Green and Quinn landed a floater. Notre Dame led 30-27 at intermission.

The Hoyas scored the first eight points of the second half and staved off the Irish for the remainder of the game, getting offensive rebounds and second chances left and right. Across the board, Georgetown outrebounded Notre Dame, 41-31, including an 18-11 advantage on the offensive glass.

“We gave ourselves a chance to win, but their putbacks hurt us,” Brey said. “We finished the first half so well and we started the second half just poorly. Then you’re digging out of a hole.”

Unlike at South Florida, the Hoyas had success pushing inside against the Irish, thanks to sophomore Roy Hibbert’s dominating presence in the post.

“I thought that he had scored more points,” Thompson said of Hibbert, who had four points and 11 rebounds. “I thought he was a presence on offense because he draws so much attention. People gravitating to Roy enable the middle to be open so much.”

Notre Dame’s focus on Hibbert allowed Green and senior Ashanti Cook to score 13 and 14 points respectively, in addition to permitting so many offensive rebounds.

Down the stretch, after the Irish tied the game at 55 with five minutes to go, the Hoyas converted layups and took smart shots to fend off a rally by their opponent.

“The coaches, they preach make layups,” Bowman said. “We were missing a lot of layups. Coach has been uneasy about it, but I think today we did a good job for the most part.”

Georgetown relied on its starters for most of its scoring. Fifth-year Darrel Owens was the only player to get points off the bench, sinking one attempt from the perimeter on 1-of-5 shooting.

Quinn scored eight points and had eight assists in 40 minutes of play. Falls paced Notre Dame with 21 points. He sank six of 11 attempts from beyond the arc.

Junior guard Russell Carter added 12 points and sophomore forward Rob Kurz chipped in 11 for the Irish.

The win improved the Hoyas to 7-1 all time in the first round of the conference tournament.

Georgetown (20-8) now confronts Marquette (20-9), a rematch of a 57-51 Hoya loss in Milwaukee on Feb. 16. The Hoyas and the Golden Eagles tip off Thursday at 2 p.m. on ESPN.

Notre Dame (15-13) now awaits a likely National Invitation Tournament bid.

Syracuse 74, Cincinnati 73

Senior Gerry McNamara hit a three-point runner with half a second left to extend Syracuse’s season for at least one more game, giving the Orange a first-round win over the Bearcats and setting the stage for a quarterfinal match with No. 1 Connecticut.

“Under the circumstances, this is the most important shot that I’ve made,” McNamara said. “For a four or five minute stretch, they had us against the wall. The game could’ve gone either way.”

Syracuse led 39-34 at the half and mounted an 11-2 run out of the intermission, but Cincinnati held its own and clawed back. The Bearcats took a 70-68 lead with two minutes to play as senior forward James White nailed a trey. With eight seconds left, Cincinnati (19-12) missed the second shot of a one-and-one and gave the ball back to Syracuse with a 73-71 lead.

McNamara led his team with 17 points. Including the 6-foot-2 senior, five Orange players reached double figures – Terrence Roberts (16), Watkins (15), Eric Devendorf (12) and Demetris Nichols (10).

White had 32 points in the losing effort. Senior forward Eric Hicks had his 12th double-double of the season with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Next round: No. 8 Syracuse (20-11) vs. No. 1 Connecticut (27-2), Thurs., noon, ESPN