The Syracuse women’s basketball team prides itself on playing 2-3 zone defense, so it came as a surprise when, with 13 minutes remaining in its game against Boston College on Saturday, SU switched to man-to-man.

But the surprise wasn’t the change itself. It was how long SU coach Marianna Freeman waited to make it.

Boston College made a mockery of SU’s zone, finding every open space and blindsiding the Orangewomen with 65.4-percent shooting in the first half to run away with an 82-63 victory at Manley Field House.

‘(Boston College) shot incredible from the 3-point line,’ Freeman said. ‘If you are shooting well from the outside against our zone, it’s vulnerable.’

Against BC (15-4, 7-1 Big East), Syracuse’s zone was more vulnerable than an antelope surrounded by a pride of lions. When BC coach Cathy Inglese inserted Clare Droesch for starting guard Brianne Stepherson, she formed a trio of 3-point assassins that fired at will over SU’s zone and left Syracuse (8-12, 3-6) in a hole it couldn’t climb out of.

Droesch — who went 4-of-4 shooting with three 3-pointers in the first half — teamed with Amber Jacobs and Jessalyn Deveny to make 13 of 17 first-half shots, including 5 of 7 from 3-point range.

‘When (Inglese) takes (Stepherson) out and puts three shooters in, it’s a very difficult thing to defend,’ Freeman said. ‘I felt our players worked hard at trying to get out to the shooters. They just shot a tremendous percentage in the first half.’

When Droesch came off the bench with 14 minutes left in the first half, the Eagles led, 12-10. After an exchange of baskets, BC went on a deciding 19-2 run that ended with five consecutive points from Droesch to put BC up, 33-14, with 8:03 left in the half.

The Eagles’ flow survived the halftime break, as BC remained unconscious. Behind 10 points from Jacobs — who scored a game-high 25 — the Eagles took their largest lead, 65-39, with 12 minutes remaining. Despite BC’s continued hot shooting, SU stuck with its zone until the 13-minute mark, when Freeman finally called for man-to-man defense.

‘We’re not a man-to-man team; we’re a zone team,’ Freeman said. ‘Hindsight is always 100 percent. But I think we went to it at the right time.’

Freeman’s unfailing faith in the 2-3 may have been misguided.

The change to man-to-man flustered BC’s shooters, who, for the first time all game, consistently had hands in their faces. The Eagles went 2-of-12 shooting and committed four turnovers in the first 10 minutes SU played man-to-man.

While SU’s defense challenged BC’s shooters instead of obliging them, Krystalyn Ellerbe ignited a 9-0 Syracuse run with a steal at halfcourt and a wide-open layup. After two April Jean free throws, Syracuse had reduced BC’s advantage to 65-50 with 7:47 remaining.

‘(Man-to-man) was a big factor (in the run we had),’ Freeman said. ‘We were coming out on them, and they couldn’t just stand out and move the ball and shoot it.’

‘They play the zone really well but there’s a lot of openings that coach showed us in practice that we looked to attack,’ Jacobs said. ‘It was a good thing (for the Orangewomen) that they went to man to change it up on us.’

That change may have come too late. Syracuse cut BC’s lead to 13, but came no closer.

‘We made a good run in the second half to get back into the basketball game,’ Freeman said, ‘and just pretty much ran out of time.’

By defeating the Orangewomen on their home floor, BC exacted revenge from its 76-71 loss to SU on Jan. 18 in Chestnut Hill, Mass. In that contest, SU — which hadn’t won a Big East game all year — was effective with the zone because BC attacked it instead of shooting over it.

This time, though, the Eagles learned their lesson.

‘We knew coming in that we wanted this game,’ Jacobs said. ‘They had beaten us on our floor, and we just wanted to come back here and show them the Boston College team that they didn’t get to see. At home, we did not play to our potential at all. So we came in here, and we were pretty focused and showed them what we’re all about.’

Published on February 2, 2003 at 12:00 pm