After breezing through the first half, the Georgetown Hoyas weren’t expecting to sweat it out against Villanova in the last few minutes.

“I’m glad our guys held on,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. “It was coming too easily. We just had to refocus.”

Roy Hibbert scored eight of his 14 points in no. 9 Georgetown’s opening 26–2 run, and the Hoyas held on for a 62–57 victory yesterday over ninth-seeded Villanova in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament.

A rested Georgetown (24–6), the tournament’s top seed, came out shooting, and a weary-looking Villanova couldn’t find the basket early. The Wildcats (22–10) made a game of it in the closing minutes, but the huge first-half deficit was too much to overcome.

“I don’t think we did anything wrong at the start of the game or throughout the game, really,” Villanova forward Curtis Sumpter said. “We just had a couple of bad possessions and Georgetown just took advantage of them.”

DaJuan Summers got things started with a 3-pointer 2:22 in and the Hoyas kept going from there. Georgetown was up 14–0 before Sumpter finally got Villanova on the scoreboard with a jumper 7:20 into the game.

The Hoyas followed with a 12–0 run to go up 26–2 at 9:28 on Jeff Green’s layup, and opened leads to as big as 25 points three times.

“I think we were just a little better at it, and they were a little off to start,” Thompson said.

Green, the Big East player of the year, added 12 points and nine rebounds for the Hoyas, who shot 42.6% (23-of-54) and advanced to Friday’s semifinal game against Notre Dame. Georgetown has won 13 of its last 14.

Sumpter scored 18 points for Villanova, which had its four-game winning streak end. The Wildcats just couldn’t get their offense going in the first half — shooting 27% (6-of-22) compared to the Hoyas’ 57% (16-of-28).

“You just try to tell them it’s a long game, there’s a lot of time left,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “They went on a big run and we’ve just got to keep playing our game. You know, you don’t try to make it any big deal.”

***

NOTRE DAME 89, SYRACUSE 83 Russell Carter scored 24 points to help no. 20 Notre Dame beat Syracuse 89–83 in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament yesterday, ending the Orange’s run for a third straight championship.

Syracuse (22–10) had won the last two Big East championships and eight straight tournament games — one short of Connecticut’s record of nine set from 1998-2000.

Notre Dame (24–6), which finished fourth in the conference and received a first-round bye, won its sixth straight game. The Irish won 23 games in the regular season, their most since the 1985-86 season.

Leading 56–53 with 11:59 left in the game, Notre Dame went on a 9–2 run to take a 10-point lead. Carter had four points during the spurt.

Syracuse rallied to within 70-66 on Paul Harris’ layup. The Irish extended the lead to 11 on Falls’ free throws with 1:41 left.

The Orange refused to go away, cutting the lead to four three times — the last on Harris’ layup with 24.9 seconds left. Notre Dame made its free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.

***

LOUISVILLE 82, WEST VIRGINIA 71, 2OT Terrence Williams scored 21 points and Earl Clark added 17 as no. 12 Louisville beat West Virginia 82–71 last night in double overtime in the quarterfinals of the Big East conference tournament.

David Padgett added 16 points as the Cardinals (23–8) blew a 17-point lead in the second half before outlasting the upset-minded Mountaineers.

Edgar Sosa drove the length of the court through most of the West Virginia team and made a lefthanded at the buzzer to force overtime for the Cardinals.

Frank Young had 19 points and Da’Sean Butler added 17 for West Virginia (22–9), which used an 18–0 run in the second half to take its first lead of the game.

Louisville, loser of nine straight at Madison Square Garden since beating Iona on January 5, 1984, scored the first nine points of the second overtime to take a 75–66 lead on Clark’s 3 with 1:24 to go.

Jamie Smalligan, who finished with 13 points, hit two free throws for the Mountaineers’ first points of the period.

However, Louisville then went 7-for-8 from the line to seal the win. Williams and Clark scored five points apiece in the second OT.