Georgetown fought the number two team in the nation to the brink and beyond Wednesday night, taking the hated Syracuse Orange to overtime before succumbing in the last minute, 64-61. The Hoyas withstood multiple Orange surges, punching back even as the home team threatened to run away with the game. Ultimately, despite the valiant effort, two miscues did the young Hoyas in: their big men’s inability to finish near the rim, and their failure to contain Orange wing Kris Joseph.

Georgetown led for nearly the entire first half, dominating the boards while staying just ahead of the Orange. Freshman Otto Porter, who would finish with 14 points and 13 rebounds, led the charge to the glass, grabbing nine first-half misses. The Hoyas were no great shakes from the field, shooting below 40 percent for the half, but managed a couple of timely threes from Hollis Thompson and just enough ball movement to score on the Orange zone. On the other end of the floor, the Hoyas’ zone bottled up the Orange, save for a couple of Joseph threes, helping the visitors to carry a 31-27 lead into half-time.

Syracuse came out of the break with eight straight points to wrest the lead from the Hoyas. A sloppy turnover and missed shot both led to easy transition points, which Georgetown had limited up to that point. Syracuse’s run culminated with a Brandon Triche three that brought the 27,000 plus Orange-clad fans to their feet. Seniors Jason Clark and Henry Sims each had picked up their third fouls, making the Hoyas’ prospects grim.

Faced with veteran foul trouble, JTIII turned to a line-up of Hollis and the four freshmen. As they had so many times before, the first years came through on the defensive end, stanching the blood-letting while scoring just enough to tighten the margin back up. The game was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way, with each team taking one-basket leads that were just as quickly equalized. But Georgetown struggled to keep up, as Sims and Mikael Hopkins, the Hoyas’ big men, missed a series of chip shots near the rim, finishing 2 of 20 between them from the floor. While some of the shots looked make-able, many of the misses could be chalked up to Syracuse’s stout interior defense which, led by massive center Fab Melo, boasts the best block rate in the Big East. Having contained the Hoyas on offense, Syracuse rebuilt its advantage, which swelled to six thanks to yet another three by Joseph with 4:37 remaining

Just when Georgetown looked to be fading into the night, though, Clark hit back-to-back threes from ten or more feet beyond the arc. Reinvigorated on offense, the Hoyas locked down on defense, holding the Orange to just a single free throw over the last four minutes. In part, the Hoyas were aided by Orange guard Dion Waiters’s decision to play hero ball, as the sophomore launched jumper after ill-advised jumper. But Georgetown’s stingy defense also ruled out other options, clogging the lane and swarming the perimeter. Clark’s second bomb pulled the Hoyas within one, and an ill-advised foul with a minute remaining sent Greg Whittington to the line with just one minute remaining. The freshman made one of two to tie the game; each team missed opportunities to win in the final minute, including a frustrating possession in which Sims looked off a wide open Thompson on the perimeter.

A see-saw extra session ensued, with each team gaining, then relinquishing, a two-point lead. With less than a minute to play, Syracuse had the ball with a chance to break a 61-all tie. Once again, the Orange found Joseph free on the wing, and once again, the senior converted from three, his sixth trey of the evening with barely 20 seconds remaining in the extra session. A Georgetown timeout and a frustrating sequence ensued, in which Thompson tried to check into the game, but too late, leaving the Hoyas without their best perimeter marksman on a critical possession. Left without an additional option, Clark was bottled up and turned the ball over, ending the Hoyas’ chances.

The final minute was a disheartening end to an extremely encouraging evening that validated the Hoyas’ progress throughout the season. Whatever the struggles on each end of the floor, the Hoyas proved that they could shut down the Orange offense, which until last night had averaged more than 78 points per game. Porter once again proved his merit on a big stage, notching a double-double, while the rest of the Hoya freshmen seemed unfazed by the rabid opposing crowd. Clark and Thompson each played moderately well against the swarming Orange zone, with Hollis in particular showing full-court effort en route to his own 10 point, 10 rebound double-double.

Georgetown takes these positives into a five-game stretch in which the Hoyas are likely to be favored in each contest: Sunday’s home game against St. John’s; road trips to Providence and Seton Hall; and a pair of home games, against Villanova and Notre Dame. Each game will present its own challenges, but if the Hoyas bring the same defensive tenacity and composure against those foes that brought them within a free throw of being the first team to win at the Carrier Dome, they should emerge victorious. For now, the sting of Wednesday’s loss lingers, but another game awaits. Hoya Saxa.