MILWAUKEE – Accustomed to hearing “We Are Georgetown” ringing out through the rafters during their string of victories, the No. 17 Hoyas were in for a rude awakening Thursday night at the Bradley Center.

Instead, “We Are Marquette” filled the arena at a deafening pitch as the unranked Golden Eagles took down the Hoyas, 57-51.

“It makes it so much easier to play and so much fun to play when you have a crowd like that,” Marquette Head Coach Tom Crean said, offering game balls to the 15,243 fans that came out to show their support at the Bradley Center in downtown ilwaukee, a venue that has quickly developed the reputation as one of the most difficult Big East arenas to visit.

Marquette (17-8, 7-5) was defending a home court on which it has amassed an 11-2 record in 2005-06, including a victory over Connecticut on Jan. 3. The Golden Eagles have won those 11 contests by an average 18 points.

Georgetown (17-6, 8-4) walked off the floor with its second-straight loss heading into a Sunday showdown with fourth-ranked Villanova.

Sophomore forward Jeff Green picked up his second foul on an offensive charge just nine minutes into the game, prompting Head Coach John Thompson III to bench the 6-foot-9 sophomore for the remainder of the first half.

The Hoyas’ offense sputtered without Green, but his return in the second half didn’t provide any sort of spark. Instead, the Golden Eagles defense held him scoreless while he turned over the ball five times.

“That’s probably the worst game I’ve ever seen Jeff Green play,” Head Coach John Thompson III said. “He was just in a funk, couldn’t get into a rhythm offensively.”

Roy Hibbert led Georgetown with 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting, but he was ineffective for large stretches of the game as the team found no way to establish a consistent inside presence. Marquette took to switching back and forth between zone and man defensive sets.

“For this game, we felt that was our best avenue to be aggressive, our best avenue to have a chance to win,” Crean said.

None of the other Georgetown players stepped up to fill the gaps as usually happens. Senior forward Brandon Bowman and senior guard Ashanti Cook added just seven points each, and sophomore Jon Wallace added six during the team’s failed second-half rally.

The Hoyas scored the first six points and sank all of their first seven shots to take a 14-9 advantage, before resorting to the three-pointers that doomed them on Sunday against West Virginia.

Georgetown shot 1-for-9 from beyond the arc in the first half. The only attempt that fell was taken by freshman forward Marc Egerson, and it gave the team its largest lead of the night, 19-13, midway through the first half.

But from there on, the long ball spelled Georgetown’s downfall as Marquette mounted an 11-0 run to close out the half, highlighted by a wide-open three by Golden Eagles’ senior forward Steve Novak. Novak, the leading three-point man (in terms of total shots made) in the Big East, scored a team-high 19 points, going 5-of-8 from three-point range despite the Hoyas’ defensive prowess.

“He makes more contested shots than anyone I’ve seen in a long time,” Thompson said.

Hibbert squeaked in a layup at the buzzer, giving the Golden Eagles a five-point lead going into the intermission, 29-24, and keeping the Hoyas within striking distance.

Georgetown made three straight three-pointers to open the second half, making clear that the long ball had replaced the team’s inside game.

“It’s a fine line,” Thompson said of his players’ tendency to take threes. “Were they open shots? Yes. But did we need to not take them and try to get it inside? Yes. . There was a stretch there, more so in the first half, where I said, `Yo fellas, we’ve got to stop this. Let’s look inside.’ We regrouped and made much more of an effort to get it inside in the second half, but [Marquette] did a good job of limiting that.”

The Hoyas could do no better than to slowly chip away at the Golden Eagles’ advantage as the minutes ticked by. They finally overtook their opponent, 49-48, on a three by Cook with 3:50 to go.

Sloppy play on the game’s final possessions sealed arquette’s second victory this season over a ranked opponent. Georgetown had opportunities but lost many of them due to poor execution.

Hibbert picked off a shot by Novak but Green was called for traveling at the opposite end of the floor. On an inbound, Novak’s five seconds ran out and the ball went back to Georgetown.

Cook, this time driving inside, charged into freshman guard Jerel McNeal. Marquette senior guard Joe Chapman drained a three, his only basket of the game, to retake the lead for the Golden Eagles – permanently, as it turned out.

On the Hoyas’ ensuing possessions, Bowman put up an air ball, Wallace tripped and stepped out of bounds on the baseline and fifth-year Darrel Owens took a desperation heave at the backboard. With Marquette in double bonus, the Golden Eagles sank their free throws and locked up the win.

Coming into Thursday’s game, the Hoyas had been 3-0 against conference newcomers after wins over South Florida, Cincinnati and DePaul.

Georgetown stays on the road to face Villanova at the Pavilion on Sunday. Tip-off is slated for noon.