SYRACUSE, N.Y. – In front of 31,327 fans, college basketball’s largest crowd of the year, unranked Syracuse pulled off the upset against No. 8 Georgetown, downing the Hoyas 77-70 the Carrier Dome Saturday afternoon.

The Hoyas (20-4, 10-3 Big East) knew that history was not on their side coming into today’s matchup – last year, Syracuse (17-9, 7-6) snapped the 11-game win streak Georgetown brought to the Carrier Dome on Feb. 26. In addition, Big East road games have been an adventure for the league’s top teams during conference play, but Georgetown has seemed particularly off guard of late. All of the Hoyas’ four losses have been on the road, three of them against Big East teams and two against unranked teams.

“This team just doesn’t have the hardness that’s necessary to win against a good team on the road. . That keeps rearing its head,” Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said. “Road wins have been difficult this year in the league. . You have to be tight at both ends.”

Even though the Hoyas came into the game leading the nation in field goal percentage defense, holding teams to an average of 35.3 percent, Syracuse found a way around that converting on 44.4 percent of their attempts. On the other end, Syracuse held Georgetown to 41.8 percent from the field, well before the Hoyas’ season average of 49.2 percent.

“Our defense was the key tonight,” Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim said. “It’s hard to score a lot of points against them. They don’t give up that many points too often.”

Despite 48 points in the second half and a career-high 26 points for senior guard Jonathan Wallace, who led all scorers on the day, a mistake-filled first half doomed the Hoyas. Syracuse dominated the Dome for the first 20 minutes, keeping Georgetown out of the paint and forcing 12 first-half turnovers. Syracuse capitalized on consecutive botched possessions to double up the Hoyas, 20-10, at the 11:00 mark. After a pair of free throws from Hoyas freshman Austin Freeman, the Orange rattled off a 12-0 run in the next 4:33 to lead Georgetown 32-12, with six minutes still left to go in the first half.

Senior center Roy Hibbert was held in check in the paint for the entire first half as the Orange limited him to just five points and one field goal, but he wasn’t the only one to struggle. Junior guard Jessie Sapp, usually a spark for the Hoyas early on, was held scoreless the first half.

“Everybody wants to do something to try and change the way things we’re going. .We just weren’t on the same page with that,” said sophomore forward DaJuan Summers (14 points).

Syracuse took advantage of the lackluster Hoya offense to extend its lead to as many as 21 points, the largest deficit Georgetown has faced this year. The Hoyas walked into the locker room down 38-22. The last time Georgetown was that far behind was for just a minute against then No. 2-Memphis in December.

“We came out a little too careless with the basketball, and it led to a lot of transition points for them,” Wallace said. “The way we started the game out, we weren’t as tough and hard as we have to be.”

The Hoyas came back to the court a different team for the second half, taking charge and even giving their fans a glimmer of the hope, closing the gap to seven five minutes into the second half. Georgetown turned the ball over just twice in the second frame and got the ball into the paint. But each time the Hoyas came within reach, the Orange came roaring back behind their home crowd, and Georgetown never did recover from the terrible first half.

Even though the Orange are heralded for their stellar freshman class, guard Jonny Flynn and forward Donte Greene, it was sophomore forward Paul Harris who led the Syracuse charge today, leading the team with 22 points and eight rebounds. Harris was the thorn in the Hoyas’ side all day.

“I thought he won the game for them,” Thompson said of Harris. “He made plays consistently and at various points. Whenever we we’re trying to get back in it, he would make a play.”

Flynn and Greene still combined for 35 points on the day, and junior forward Arinze Onuaku added 13 before fouling out.

Hibbert struggled all day, posting a quiet 11 points, but added just three rebounds as the Hoyas were out-rebounded again 36-30.

“If you’re looking for an answer I don’t think it’s the crowd, I don’t think it’s us being “the hunted”, I don’t think it’s whatever. I just think we need to figure out how to do better,” Thompson said.

The Hoyas will have their next chance at Providence (13-12, 4-9) on Monday at 4 p.m.

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