WASHINGTON — Michael Carter-Williams tried to keep Syracuse in the game.

The 6-foot-6 point guard sliced through Georgetown’s pressure defense and absorbed contact for tough finishes in the lane. He nailed pull-ups and floaters, displaying his competitive fire after each one in hopes of injecting some life into his teammates.

But ultimately, Carter-Williams proved to be the Orange’s only threat on offense in his team’s 61-39 blowout loss to Georgetown at the Verizon Center on Saturday. He finished with 17 points on 8-for-13 shooting, while his teammates combined to go 7-for-34 from the field (20.6 percent) in the thrashing at the hands of the Hoyas in their final regular-season Big East matchup in history.

“I noticed that we weren’t making shots so I tried to get into the lane and score and just do the best I can,” Carter-Williams said.

Syracuse stayed within striking distance for much of the first half behind Carter-Williams’ play.

His first basket came off a screen from SU center Rakeem Christmas at the top of the key. Carter-Williams charged hard down the lane, then slithered his way between defenders before banking the shot home seven minutes into the game.

Two minutes later, Carter-Williams took a pass that went through Georgetown center Nate Lubick’s hands coast-to-coast. He flipped the fast-break layup off the glass and drew a foul on Markel Starks who raced back on defense.

The point guard then gave a hop and a skip as he made his way to the free-throw line, fired up for the chance to tie the game. Then Georgetown’s defense locked down – forcing Carter-Williams into one of his five turnovers in a trap along the baseline – and keyed a 5-0 Hoyas run.

D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera finished an easy one on the break, but Carter-Williams responded with a pull-up jumper at the foul line. He looked to the Hoyas’ bench and backpedaled his way down the court with swagger.

“Mike was able to make more tough shots, get going a little bit,” SU guard Brandon Triche said.

But with every tough shot by Carter-Williams – like his finish after beating Jabril Trawick, who was hounding him on the perimeter, and crashing into Lubick on the block – there was another by Georgetown.

And his teammates never got comfortable against the defense that forced Carter-Williams into five turnovers. Triche couldn’t find any angle to the hoop as his funk continued, while C.J. Fair’s drives often ended with a miss in his 3-for-10 shooting performance.

“You can’t do it just one-on-one when the defense is set because now you have to make an extremely tough move, a great move,” Triche said. “If you don’t make a great move then you got to make a crazy shot.”

On Saturday, only Carter-Williams was up to the task.

Published on March 9, 2013 at 7:08 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu