When Syracuse lost badly to South Florida on Wednesday, it wasn't unreasonable to assume that the Orange were done with NCAA Tournament dreams. The horrible loss to the last place team in the Big East, a 3-point home win over St. Joe's being the best non-con win, and a rather unremarkable conference and overall record just made them seemed prime for a return to the NIT.
That was before they came out and beat Georgetown 77-70. It was not nearly that close. The Orange came out hot and going straight at Roy Hibbert. Arinze Onuaku was able to more than hold his own against Hibbert. Georgetown was incredibly sloppy and careless with the ball. Turning the ball over 10 times in the first half. Every time, Syracuse capitalized on the turnovers. By halftime the Orange led by 16.
Most of the second half Syracuse just maintained the lead. Paul Harris was outstanding almost the entire game for Syracuse. He found his shot and continually went to the basket to draw fouls in this game. For Georgetown, Jonathan Wallace scored 11 of his 26 points in the final 1:24 to make the game cosmetic.
Syracuse finally notches an upper-tier conference win, and now gives them a better chance to go at least 9-9 in the Big East. They have games remaining at Louisville and Notre Dame and home games with Pitt and Marquette. They probably need at least 2-2 in those games (plus taking care of Seton Hall) to move from being a borderline Tournament team to being in
