Top 25: No. 5 Georgetown 61, No. 17 Syracuse 39

Top 25 basketball » It was the final regular-season meeting.

By HOWARD FENDRICH

| The Associated Press

First Published Mar 09 2013 04:10 pm • Last Updated Mar 09 2013 11:42 pm

Washington • Georgetown emphatically ended its Big East rivalry against Syracuse, wrapping up the regular-season title by holding the Orange to the lowest scoring output of their time in the conference.

On an afternoon that Otto Porter Jr. didn’t make a field goal until the second half, No. 5 Georgetown used stifling defense to close its rivalry against No. 17 Syracuse with a 61-39 victory Saturday.

Porter finished with 10 points, but the national player of the year candidate contributed in plenty of other ways, as usual, with eight rebounds and seven assists.

Markel Starks scored 19 points, and freshman D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera had 15 points, five rebounds and five assists for the Hoyas (24-5, 14-4), who will be the No. 1 seed at the Big East tournament next week in New York.

Syracuse (23-8, 11-7), which had been hoping for a double-bye in the tournament, was led by Michael Carter-Williams’ 17 points.

But the Orange shot only 32 percent from the field, including 1 for 11 on 3-point tries.

When the game ended, fans stormed the court — even though the favorite won — and it took a while to clear them away so Georgetown could have a brief ceremony celebrating its title in the last year of the league as it’s currently constituted. The Hoyas have won 12 of their last 13 games, including two wins against Syracuse. Porter scored 33 in a victory at the Carrier Dome on Feb. 23. It’s the Hoyas’ first two-game sweep of a season series over the Orange since 2001-02.

This regular-season finale was the schools’ 89th meeting overall (Syracuse leads 48-41) — but the last time they will face each other as rivals in the Big East. Syracuse is heading to the Atlantic Coast Conference, and Georgetown is part of a group of seven schools splitting away to form a basketball-centric league that will get to keep the Big East name.

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