When Syracuse met with the media Monday afternoon, something seemed amiss. The Orange was coming off a disappointing loss to then-No. 16 Notre Dame. Head coach Quentin Hillsman and forward Fantasia Goodwin, among others, were admittedly sick. For the first time all year, the team looked a little depleted.

But to lose to lowly Providence? Impossible.

Or so everybody thought.

Providence (12-13, 2-10 Big East) stunned No. 22 Syracuse, 62-58, at Mullaney Gymnasium in Providence, R.I., on Tuesday. And for the first time all year, it may have been free throws that did the Orange in. SU entered the game shooting 71.7 percent from the line, but went a miserable 21-for-34 (61.8 percent) against the Friars.

All year, Syracuse has played its best games against the top teams in the conference, hanging with Connecticut and Notre Dame and beating DePaul on the road. But it has looked bad against some of the worst conference opponents, first losing to Georgetown, now Providence.

‘You hope we don’t play to our opponents,’ Hillsman said by phone after the game. ‘But that could be the case. With a young team, you start looking at records. When you do that, you get in trouble. It’s only natural to do that, but I don’t. This loss hurts.’

Syracuse (19-6, 7-5) had a chance down the stretch to at least tie the game and send it into overtime, but unlike the Orange, Providence did not miss clutch free throws in the final minutes. The Friars hit their last nine foul shots, eight of which came in the contest’s last 90 seconds. Conversely, SU connected on just two of its last five in the final five minutes.

With 12 seconds left and Syracuse trailing by three, center Vaida Sipaviciute stepped to the line for two shots to make it a one-point game. But she hit just 1-of-2, and the Orange had to foul down by two points. Apparently, it chose the wrong player: Mi-Khida Hankins, who was already leading Providence with 18 points.

Hankins hit both shots of the 1-and-1 to increase the Friars’ lead back up to four. On the ensuing Syracuse possession, Goodwin managed to convert a layup, but time was certainly not in SU’s favor. Providence inbounded the ball to Hankins, who once again coolly hit both free throws to give her a career-high 22 points and ice the game. Hankins finished the game 8-of-10 from the charity stripe.

Besides forward Chandrea Jones, who had her best game in almost a month with 17 points, nobody shot well for Syracuse from the line. Jones went 9-for-11. The rest of the team went 12-of-23, or 52.2 percent. Dependable shooters like guard Erica Morrow, who shoots 72.5 percent from the line, went 0-for-2 on Tuesday. Forward Vionca Murray (76.6 percent) shot 3-for-5.

It was the opposite story for Providence, which shot 18-of-20 from the foul line on the night. Hankins on the year is a 69 percent shooter. No other PC player missed a free throw, including Shantee Darrian, who hit five straight. No matter, she’s a 55 percent free throw shooter.

Statistical anomalies? Perhaps, but that’s exactly what the worst team in the Big East needed to beat the No. 22 team in the country.

‘We had opportunities to put the ball in the hoop because they couldn’t guard us off the bounce, but we didn’t,’ Hillsman said. ‘We had a few down the stretch, man a few big ones that could’ve done it for us.’

But excuses aside, Syracuse still lost to Providence Tuesday night. Yes, Providence – a team that entered the game 1-10 in the Big East having lost eight in a row. The Friars had not won since beating South Florida on Jan. 15. SU had not lost consecutive games all season, presenting a new challenge when it takes on Cincinnati on Saturday.

Going into the game, it was a foregone conclusion the Orange would return to the friendly confines of the Carrier Dome this weekend a 20-win team for the first time in 20 years.

Now Syracuse needs to regroup and reprove it is ready to play with the big dogs.

‘With us being sick and having young kids, everything hit a wall tonight,’ Hillsman said. ‘We have time to recover now, and we have to get off the plane tonight and prepare for Cincinnati.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on February 19, 2008 at 12:00 pm