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As in 1980, Saturday the *Georgetown Hoya Men's Basketball Team
*unceremoniously
shut down another Syracuse Basketball Arena and snapped another Orangemen
home win streak (this time at 38 games) with a decisive score of *57-46*.

*REMINDER: *On, Feb. 13, 1980, Georgetown stunned No. 2 Syracuse 52-50 in
the final game at Manley Field House to snap the Orange's 57-game homecourt
winning streak. After the win Hoyas coach John Thompson Jr. declared, *"Manley
Field House is officially closed."*

*THE CARRIER DOME IS OFFICIALLY DEAD TO US! WAY TO GO GU! HOYA SAXA!!*


FROM:
http://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/index.ssf/2013/02/georgetown_ruins_syracuses_par.html

The Carrier Dome may not be closed, but the Georgetown Hoyas put a
disappointing end to yet another era in Syracuse basketball history on
Saturday.

In the final game at the Carrier Dome between the Big East’s two
standard-bearing programs prior to Syracuse’s departure to the ACC,
Georgetown handed the Orange a 57-46 loss.

Just as Georgetown defeated Syracuse in the final game at Manley Field
House back in 1980, snapping Syracuse’s 57-game home winning streak in the
process, the Hoyas came to the Carrier Dome on Saturday and ruined the
Orange’s big going away party.

Georgetown's win ended Syracuse's 38-game home winning streak, which had
been the longest active streak in the nation and was the longest in the
Dome's history. Georgetown was the last team to beat Syracuse at home,
beating the Orange 64-59 on Feb. 9, 2011.

FROM: http://www.guhoyas.com/genrel/011309aab.html

The rivalry began in earnest with the 1979 ECAC tournament game (pre-BIG
EAST days) at Cole Field House when, led by John Duren and Craig Shelton
and frosh phenom Eric Floyd, Georgetown defeated the Orange to go to the
NCAA tournament. The seminal game in the rivalry likely was the 1980
"Manley Field House is Officially Closed" game, when Coach John Thompson,
Jr.'s Hoyas, still led by Shelton, Duren and Floyd, made a ferocious
comeback from a big deficit to defeat the Orange. Thereafter, the rivalry
grew, as did the BIG EAST, and for much of the 1980s the Hoyas and the
Orange were the two preeminent teams in the BIG EAST, although schools like
St. John's, Boston College and Villanova certainly had their days and
seasons. With this as prologue, I present my five top GU v. Cuse games.


*My Fave 5 GU v. Cuse Games:* **


1. *3/10/84 GU 82 Cuse 71 (OT) (BIG EAST Final):* The all-time
Numero Uno!! Perhaps the most brutal, dramatic and satisfying game that I
can ever recall. Patrick
Ewing<http://www.guhoyas.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/ewing_patrick00.html>scored
27 points and garnered 16 rebounds a night after shooting 11 for 12
against St. Johns. Michael Graham gave a taste of things to come in the
NCAA tournament by his performance in this game. I believe that he
tangled, among others, with Andre Hawkins, one of the all-time Cuse thugs.
Pearl Washington put on a show that only the Pearl could perform - - making
Gene Smith (and any other Hoya who tried to defend him) look bad, very
bad). We were a bit lucky to get this one into overtime, but once we did,
as with the 2007 Regional Final Game against UNC, it was all Georgetown.
Cuse Coach Jim Boeheim was in “full whine” after the game, complaining, as
he kicked over a chair, that “The Best Team Did Not Win Tonight.” Wrong-O
Jimmie Boy!


2. *3/08/87 GU 69 Cuse 59 (BIG EAST Final):* This game was the
capstone of a three-game season sweep by Reggie and the Miracles of the
Orangemen, led by Ronnie Seikaly, Sherman Douglass and freshman Derrick
Coleman. Ironically, Syracuse made it to the NCAA finals where they lost
on a last-second corner jumper by Keith Smart of Indiana. (I still hate
Slick Rick Pitino and Billy Donovan from Providence for beating us in the
Elite Eight.) Perry McDonald, 6’04, went head-to-head with Seikaly at
center and Reggie Williams was, as always, exquisite. (I will also confess
that at Mass that morning at little Saint Francis of Assisi Church by the
Garden, I actively prayed for the Hoyas to win!)


3. *3/12/89 GU 88 Cuse 79 (BIG EAST Final):* Charles "Smitty" Smith
led HIS team to the BIG EAST Championship as he, once again, completely
outplayed the more heavily-touted Sherman Douglass (another DC kid from
Spingarn). Smitty was helped by, among others, frosh Alonzo Mourning and,
off the bench, sophomore Dikembe Mutombo, but this was, without question,
Smitty's team. As I reminisced with my freshman floormate and HHC blog
namesake Mike Laughna at the post-game, tournament victory party that late
Sunday afternoon, little did I know, after the successes of the '80s, that
it would be 18 years before we would once again be crowned BIG EAST
Tournament Champions in 2007.


4. *2/13/80 GU 52 Cuse 50: "Manley Field House is officially
closed!"* I did not attend this game, but I remember listening to it at
the Law Center where I was taking some grad courses. The game was all
Syracuse until the final stretch, when Georgetown put on an incredible
rally to tie and then win the game on two free throws by Sleepy Floyd with
five seconds left. And not only did Georgetown close Manley with this one,
but also it ended the Cuse’s 57-game home winning streak. (In my view,
this Hoya team should have been Coach Thompson's first NCAA Championship
team but, after spurting to a 10-point half-time lead against Iowa in the
East Regional Finals, we pulled the air out of the ball in the second half
and lost 81-80 on the last play of the game.)


5. *3/05/79 GU 66 Cuse 58 (ECAC South Finals at Cole Field
House): *Junior
Stars John "Ba-Ba" Duren and Craig "Big Sky" Shelton joined forces with
frosh phenom Eric "Sleepy" Floyd to knock the "Louie (Orr) and (Roosevelt)
Bowie Show" out of the running for the NCAAs. We made the Cuse guards,
Marty Head and Bernie Cohen, look very bad in a most satisfying victory.


(As I look over my list, I realize that the latest game on my list was
almost 20 years ago! Perhaps it is true that memories take on certain
poignancy over time!! I know that there have been numerous memorable
match-ups since 1989 when Smitty did Douglass, but these above five games
still stick out for me!)


I have made it to the Carrier Dome once for a Georgetown v. Cuse game.
(Why would anyone want to go back in the winter!! And speaking of that,
why would anyone put an air conditioning company in a city that only thaws
for about 5 months a year!!) That was two years ago, the Final Four
season, when the Orange, even without their long-retired “Dome Ranger” but
aided by their annoying Orange mascot and the even-more annoying Eric
“Tattoo Boy” Devendorf, laid a whuppin’ on our Hoyas by the score of
72-58. Ironically, that loss, occurring just prior to the end of the
regular season, may have been the spur to the eight game winning streak we
put on taking us through the championship of the BIG EAST and all the way
to the Final Four. At the time, I was, of course, disappointed by the
defeat, but a friendly Syracuse law grad and fan, who sat next to me
during the game, uttered the following unforgettable quote (with apologies
to Winston Churchill):


Don't worry! You'll go to bed and tomorrow, you will still have a
Georgetown degree. These fans will go to bed, and tomorrow, they are still
in Syracuse!!


With that, I left the Dome chuckling!

--

Corey Alexander Shearer, Sunrise M027 Committeeman

Blanche Ely High School Community Success Team

South Florida Georgetown University Hoya Alumni Association (Georgetown CAS
'93)

*coreyshearermcp@gmail.com* <coreyshearermcp@gmail.com>

(954) 825-1940 cel