Everything seemed so simple for the Syracuse women’s basketball team.

The Orange was looking forward to the luxury of an entire week off, having seven days to prepare for the forthcoming stretch run with what was to be an impressive 18-3 record. It had finally beaten a ranked opponent, knocking off No. 23 DePaul on Tuesday, so even the staunchest critics now had to take SU seriously.

And considering four teams ranked between Nos. 15-19 – Ohio State, Kansas State, Georgia and Wyoming – all lost sometime this week, Syracuse was primed to crack the top 20 for the first time in program history. All it had to do was beat lowly Georgetown, arguably the worst team in the Big East.

Oops.

The hot-shooting Hoyas stunned No. 22 Syracuse (17-4, 5-3), 78-71, on Saturday at McDonough Arena in Washington, snapping the Orange’s three-game winning streak, and likely knocking it out of the rankings when the new poll comes out Monday. It was a disappointing end to what looked like a crucial week for SU as it continues its quest for the NCAA Tournament.

Georgetown (12-9, 2-6) had lost seven of its last 10 games and had beaten just one conference opponent all year, besting Seton Hall by just a single point. The Hoyas hadn’t beaten a ranked team since Jan. 17, 2004.

But the Hoyas came to play on Saturday, and SU head coach Quentin Hillsman could do nothing but praise them.

‘I just finished watching the tape, and they hit a ton of contested shots,’ Hillsman said Sunday afternoon in a telephone interview. ‘They were hitting shots with two guys on ’em. I wish I could make it more sophisticated than that. We were right there playing good defense. We contested them. They just hit shots.’

The numbers don’t suggest Hillsman was wrong, either. Georgetown averages about 64 points per game this season but scored 78 on Saturday. The Hoyas had reached that total just once in Big East play – a 104-86 loss to No. 20 Notre Dame in on Jan. 19. In the second half, Georgetown shot 14-for-24 overall (58.3 percent) and 6-for-9 from 3-point range (66.7) to turn a game tied at halftime into a seven-point victory.

Conversely, Syracuse scored right around its average of 73.9 points per game but allowed its second highest total in conference play. The Orange surrendered 85 points to Pittsburgh on Jan. 9 and hadn’t allowed more than 66 points in the five games since. SU allows an average of 60.4 points per game.

The Hoyas had four players score in double figures, led by senior forward Kieraah Marlow, who tallied 19 points in just 25 minutes off the bench. Sophomore guard Shanice Fuller was right behind with a career-high 16 points.

‘I don’t think we overlooked them,’ Hillsman said. ‘We knew it would be a tough game. We saw enough tape to realize they were a solid team. It wasn’t that at all. We got in there and ran into a hot shooting team. Whenever we made a run, they made a big play. They just made a ton of plays.’

Syracuse struggled with foul trouble all game long and played most of the first half with starters Chandrea Jones, Nicole Michael and Tasha Harris on the bench. Jones, SU’s leading scorer with 16.3 points per game, picked up her fourth foul early in the second half and played just 15 minutes. Michael still led the team with 16 points, but the foul situation forced Hillsman to use unusual combinations of players that rarely play together.

And it’s not getting any easier for the Orange, which has upcoming games against three more ranked conference opponents. This was supposed to be a good week off for Syracuse, with a tough game coming Sunday against Marquette. Instead, it has seven days to reflect on a bad loss and think about what could’ve been.

‘This is the hard part, waiting to go play again,’ Hillsman said. ‘It would be great if this was one of those weeks with games Saturday and Tuesday, but we gotta sit on this for another seven days.’

Published on February 3, 2008 at 12:00 pm