The game had ended more than an hour earlier, but Quentin Hillsman was still out of breath. In 92 seconds, late in the second half, DePaul turned a nine-point deficit into a one-point lead, coming within a minute of ruining Syracuse’s chances of beating a ranked team for the first time all year.

Sitting on the bus on the way back to the airport with his team chattering, singing and screaming in the background, the SU women’s basketball head coach tried to reflect on what was almost a major collapse.

But nothing could contain his enthusiasm.

‘You should’ve seen it, man, because it was crazy!’ Hillsman said by cell phone. ‘If you had seen it, you’d see they made some plays and made some run-outs. We weren’t really concerned because we knew if we kept rebounding and scoring, we’d have a situation we wanted.’

No. 22 Syracuse overcame 18 turnovers and a second-half meltdown to win a key road game Tuesday night, beating No. 23 DePaul, 69-66, at McGrath Arena in Chicago. It was the first time the Orange (17-3, 5-2 Big East) has beaten a ranked opponent since Jan. 18, 2003, when it knocked off No. 24 Boston College.

Vionca Murray had her best game in her SU career since transferring from Virginia Tech this season, leading the way with a team-high 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting. Freshman point guard Erica Morrow was right behind her with 15 of her own.

If there was a knock on this SU squad at this point, it was that it hadn’t beaten a ranked team yet this year. Two of its three losses came against Top 25 opponents.

Consider Tuesday night just another mark on the season’s checklist.

‘It was huge because we hadn’t beaten a ranked team yet,’ Hillsman said. ‘We have a lot of ranked teams to play in this conference still, and we have to start knocking them off to achieve our goals of playing in the postseason. This is what we’ve been trying to accomplish all season.’

Syracuse led for almost the entire second half but almost let the game slip away. With 2:41 remaining, the Orange led by nine, its largest margin of the night. But, suddenly, the Blue Demons (15-5, 4-3) struck like lightning, exploding for a 10-0 run in 92 seconds to take a one-point advantage.

The Orange came right back down the floor to regain the lead on a put-back layup by Murray after forward Nicole Michael missed a jump shot. On the ensuing DePaul possession, standout guard Allie Quigley drove the lane and drew a foul on Michael. She would convert one of two free throws to tie the game with 37 seconds left.

With a chance to win the game, Hillsman turned to his star freshman Erica Morrow. Her 3-point attempt rimmed out, but there was forward Chandrea Jones underneath to snag the offensive rebound and finish the second chance opportunity to put her team up for good, securing a game that featured 12 lead changes.

It was a huge play for Jones, who struggled mightily throughout the night, shooting 4-of-14 from the field and committing a team-high five turnovers. Despite her poor play Tuesday, one key hoop with 12 seconds remaining made everybody forget about her earlier follies.

‘She hung in there because she had one of her worst games all year for 39 minutes,’ Hillsman said. ‘In the last minute of the ballgame she made a play with a big rebound and putback down the stretch. That was huge for us.’

Despite all Syracuse’s success this season, critics still questioned its legitimacy, citing its 0-2 record against ranked teams. The Orange lost by 25 to then No. 7 North Carolina back in November and fell to top-ranked Connecticut by six in a well-publicized contest earlier this month.

Well, that’s history.

‘Beating a ranked team will just get us ranked higher and get us where we need to be,’ Hillsman said. ‘But we still have work to do. I don’t believe we’ve done enough yet.’

Published on January 29, 2008 at 12:00 pm