Spring break is near, and the Georgetown women will have plenty of extra leisure time on their hands after playing their way out of a Big East tournament slot with losses to Syracuse (9-18, 3-11 Big East) on Saturday and at Notre Dame (19-8, 10-4) Wednesday night. The Orange downed Georgetown 65-58 Saturday at McDonough Gymnasium in a battle to stay in Big East Championship contention. Led by junior center Vaida Sipaviciute, who tallied 20 points and three rebounds, Syracuse escaped with a win, despite messy performances from both teams. “I really think this was an evenly matched game,” Syracuse Head Coach Quentin Hillsman said. “It came down to who made more shots and got the job done, and we did that today.” Syracuse made more shots than Georgetown, 24 to 23, but the Orange only attempted 59 shots to the Hoyas’ 71. Syracuse’s efficient shooting from the field was neutralized by poor free-throw shooting: The Orange made only 13-of-24 free throws. Despite the efforts of Sipaviciute and 6-foot-3 sophomore forward Lina Lisnere on the frontcourt for Syracuse, Georgetown had a 50-43 rebounding advantage and pulled down 19 offensive boards. But Georgetown only scored four points on those 19 second chances. “I really thought our kids could have given a better effort today,” Head Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said after the game. The game began slowly, with both teams missing early shots. Syracuse held on to a slim lead for the first half, increasing its advantage to as many as seven points. The Hoyas’ scoring woes began early with freshman guard Shanice Fuller, who took and missed the Hoyas’ first three shots of the game, two of which came on off-balance drives to the basket. She finished the game 2-of-12 from the floor and 2-of-6 from behind the arc. Junior forward Kieraah Marlow led Georgetown’s offense once again, scoring 18 points. The 5-foot-10 junior also pulled down 15 rebounds to lead the team. Sipaviciute led the Orange with 12 first-half points on effortless 6-of-8 shooting. Freshman small forward Nicole ichael, not her usual, stellar self, went 2-of-8 in the first half. Michael finished with a quiet 19 points on 7-of-20 shooting, but her biggest moments in the game were not in her shooting. With 28 seconds remaining, Georgetown trailed by four, 60-56, and needed a three-pointer for a chance to pull off the win. Hesitant to shoot for the entire game, freshman forward at Georgetown’s three-point specialist Meredith Cox lined up for a three from the top of the arc. Michael closed in and delivered an echoing block as Cox released the ball, taking it 70 feet for an easy layup and sealing the victory. For Williams-Flournoy, the game should never have come down to a last-second shot. Faulty defense let Syracuse’s star trio capitalize on Georgetown’s errors, she said. “The help defense was late. Every time the help defense was late. That’s why we didn’t get charges, we didn’t help on the lob passes,” Williams-Flournoy said. “We had to guard penetration, which we didn’t do. We had to limit them to one shot, which we didn’t do.” Georgetown played a lot of 3-2 defense in the first half and the Orange took advantage, scoring 18 first-half points in the paint and 34 in the game. Forty seconds before her game-clinching block, ichael factored in another momentum-swinging play when she and junior center Aminata Diop both came down with a rebound. After referee Mark Zentz called for a jump ball, the two continued pushing until Diop pushed Michael into the padding under the Syracuse basket and in front of the Orange bench. Hillsman had to restrain Lisnere, who ran out onto the court from the bench. ichael and Diop were given offsetting technical fouls and Diop was ejected, the technical being her fifth foul of the game. Notre Dame entered its match with Georgetown on a four-game winning streak and made easy work of the Hoyas, cleaning up 73-48 in front of 5,600 fans at the Joyce Center in South Bend, Ind. Fuller saw limited time, and senior forward Kate Carlin played 30 minutes after a combined 27 against Syracuse and Marquette. The senior made the best of her time, knocking down 5-of-10 three-pointers to lead the Hoyas with 15 points. Marlow scored only six points while committing six turnovers and four fouls against the cold-shooting Irish. Georgetown also performed poorly from the free throw line, shooting 7-of-13. Notre Dame was 21-of-27 despite shooting 2-of-10 from three-point range. With 10 of the 12 Big East tournament slots already clinched and the No. 12 team, St. John’s, at 4-10 in the conference, Georgetown will have to win all of its remaining games, and St. John’s, Cincinnati and Syracuse will have to lose all of theirs, for the Hoyas to have any chance of making the tournament.