The Syracuse women’s basketball team won in convincing fashion against Seton Hall on Saturday, sparked by the emotions of Senior Night.

The Orange will try to avoid being the victims of those festivities tonight when it plays Georgetown at 7:30 at McDonough Arena in its final regular season game.

But that possibility can’t be much worse than the 43-15 hole SU (12-14, 4-11 Big East) dug itself into in the first meeting between the two teams. Syracuse eventually lost 70-56 at Manley Field House, but the Hoyas (11-15, 6-9) and Orange are not playing like they did in the Feb. 2 matchup.

While SU gave up easy back-door lay-ups earlier in the year against Georgetown, it showed the opposite in its win over Seton Hall, allowing only 38 points. The Pirates shot an abysmal 21 percent from the floor.

‘We wanted to get out, play good team defense and make people take shots in front of us,’ said head coach Keith Cieplicki.

The Hoyas come in on a two-game winning streak heading into the game. Entering the first matchup, Georgetown had lost six of its first eight conference games. The Hoyas are 3-3 since then.

The Hoyas’ Varda Tamoulianis and Mary Lisicky will be two of the three seniors honored for Georgetown and will probably be two of SU’s biggest focal points on defense.

Lisicky had 14 points in only 22 minutes of action, and Keirrah Marlow – the reigning Big East Freshman of the Week – had 20 points down low even without Tamoulianis’ assistance. The senior forward didn’t take the trip to SU after violating unspecified team rules. Even with the one-two punch underneath, Cieplicki acknowledged Georgetown’s guards after the first game and said the Hoyas’ 2-6 conference record was an underachievement.

There are seeding implications tonight for the Big East tournament. SU is currently tied for 10th out of 12 teams in the standings, while Seton Hall and Georgetown are two games ahead of the Orange and tied for eighth place.

An SU win may not help its seeding for this weekend’s conference tournament, but it can give the Orange a two-game winning streak and some confidence before it faces an upper-echelon opponent.

‘It’s good going in (to the tournament) to always have momentum,’ said senior guard Rochelle Coleman. ‘If we get a win at Georgetown that would be huge for us.’

Published on February 27, 2005 at 12:00 pm