Nicole Michael had an entire week to think and hear about just one statistic.

0-for-14.

That was Michael’s shooting line in Syracuse’s last game, a 25-point blowout loss to North Carolina in which the Orange’s best player managed only five points, all on free throws. The total matched a career low she set Nov. 12 of last year – the first game of her collegiate career.

But with less than two minutes remaining in Sunday’s contest and Lehigh still hanging around, Michael spotted up from the right side behind the arc and reminded everyone that her performance against UNC was an aberration. The 3-pointer gave Syracuse a double-digit lead for the first time in the second half, completely deflating Lehigh and securing the win.

‘I was hyped,’ Michael said. ‘I don’t like losing, so I wasn’t losing to them. When I got the ball I just said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s good.’ I just shot it, it went in. I don’t know. … It was a good shot.’

Coming off the worst performance of her collegiate career, Michael bounced back Sunday by shooting 7-of-12 from the field for a game-high 18 points in Syracuse’s home opener, a 61-54 victory over Lehigh. The 6-foot-2 sophomore also led the Orange with five assists and added 8 rebounds.

It was the kind of game Syracuse has come to expect of Michael, who burst onto the scene last year by setting the program’s all-time scoring record as a freshman with 501 points. Her poor showing last week against the Tar Heels was especially surprising, considering she notched a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds the day before in Syracuse’s 69-65 win over Coppin State.

But from the opening tip on Sunday, Michael set the tone, jumping out to a hot start and never looking back. She scored her first points less than two minutes in with a pair of free throws and connected on her first field goal at the 16:08 mark, a 3-pointer to put Syracuse up 7-0.

By the first official timeout, Michael had scored seven of the Orange’s nine points, and it became very clear Chapel Hill wasn’t still on her mind.

‘I just know Nicole is going to play hard, and she’s going to compete every game, so I wasn’t worried about Nicole going 0-for-14 again,’ SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. ‘Those things just don’t happen to her. She doesn’t play that way, so I knew she would come out and compete.’

Michael wouldn’t score again in the first half but really made her mark after intermission when the Mountain Hawks started climbing back into the game.

The Orange held a narrow lead for most of the contest. Virtually every time Lehigh threatened Syracuse’s lead, Michael came up with a big play on the offensive end to ensure the contest would never completely slip away.

At the 11:49 mark in the second half, Lehigh shrunk the gap to three, but Michael came down the court and scored on a quick jumper to push the lead right back up to five. When Lehigh cut it back to four, Michael put back a layup on a second-chance opportunity and the lead was six.

Perhaps her most important bucket came with a little more than six minutes left when the Mountain Hawks trailed only by one. Out of a timeout, Michael found space in the key, took the inbounds pass and scored on a finger-roll. Lehigh would never come that close again and didn’t lead for the entire game.

The clinching 3-pointer toward the end ended her dazzling second-half performance, in which she scored 11 points and looked unstoppable when she touched the ball in the paint.

‘With my height, and I have long arms, it’s kinda hard to guard me on the block,’ Michael said. ‘When I got the ball, my first intention is to go up and score. … With my intensity today, I just wanted to win, so I just went up and kept scoring.’

Though the Syracuse freshmen received much of the attention during the preseason, Michael will need to keep playing well for the Orange to keep winning. The North Carolina game was a disaster, but Sunday was a return to form.

Forget about 0-for-14.

‘I don’t even want to talk about last game,’ Michael said. ‘It’s the past, and I’m going to keep playing my game, and I’m going to keep getting better.’

Published on November 26, 2007 at 12:00 pm