HARTFORD, Conn. – Something strange happened with Syracuse’s defense midway through the second half Saturday night.

South Florida had just hit four 3’s in the first seven minutes, cutting what was a 10-point Orange lead at halftime down to a single point. This after USF shot 5-of-11 from behind the arc in the first half.

And on the Bulls’ next possession, SU coach Quentin Hillsman changed his defense, switching away from the traditional 2-3 zone it has played virtually all season, in an attempt to stop the shooting barrage. It worked, in a way. South Florida would hit just one more 3 the rest of the game.

Too bad it didn’t matter on the scoreboard.

Syracuse played much of the second half and overtime in a modified zone that resembled a man-to-man in the sixth-seed Orange’s heartbreaking 68-67 overtime loss to 11th-seeded South Florida, knocking SU out in the first round of the Big East tournament.

The altered defense held the Bulls to one 3 for the remaining 18 minutes, but USF still came back from a 12-point second-half deficit.

Although Syracuse’s defense looked like a man-to-man, Hillsman stressed all he did was tweak the zone to better prevent long-range shooting.

‘They were running a little double baseline runner, and they were forcing our center, Vaida (Sipaviciute) or Vionca (Murray), to run out to the corner,’ Hillsman said. ‘We didn’t want them to run out into the corner, so once they made that first pass we just kinda shaded off on the shooters, so it wasn’t actually a man-to-man.

‘It’s a little junk defense we ran a couple games, we ran against West Virginia early. We ran it against Villanova a lot because they got some great shooters.’

South Florida attempted just four more 3’s the rest of the second half, hitting just one ? a key bank shot by Shantia Grace that put the Bulls up by two with 1:43 remaining. But USF managed to find other ways to score when the arc closed up.

Jessica Lawson, USF’s 6-foot-3 center, did not score in the first half. But once Syracuse switched its defense, she took full advantage. Lawson scored 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting, all in the last six minutes of regulation and overtime. Her layup with 1:42 in overtime ended up the game-winner, putting the Bulls up 68-67, the eventual final score.

When Syracuse altered its defense, Grace, who led all scorers with 25 points, started penetrating to the basket instead of pulling up for 3’s. When she did that, the Orange collapsed on her, leaving Lawson wide open for layups under the basket. Grace assisted three of her five field goals, and guard Daiaine Packer fed her for another.

‘Coach pulled me to the side and told me I need to play big,’ Lawson said. ‘He told me I was playing small. I’m 6-foot-3, and I’m out there playing like I’m 5-foot-9. He just pulled me to the side and gave me a head check. I think that is kind of where it turned. Coach told me to do what I need to do, and I did.’

After the game, there was a little discrepancy between the two teams about what defense Syracuse was actually running. Even though the Orange was actually playing a modified zone, South Florida saw it a little differently.

In the postgame press conference, both Lawson and Grace explicitly said the Orange switched to a man-to-man, which played right into the Bulls strengths.

‘Because we’re so big, no one plays us man,’ Lawson said. ‘And that’s what we want. We want people to play us man. But no one really plays us man, so we felt like when they switched it, that was our time to cut on. That’s what we want. We wanted them to go man.’

Even though USF thought it was seeing a zone, Hillsman remained steadfast. But when the final buzzer sounded, it really didn’t matter. Syracuse lost, and now it has to wait and see if the NCAA Tournament is in its future.

‘I think Jessica Lawson was a little confused,’ Hillsman said. ‘We weren’t in a man-to-man. We went man-to-man two possessions that entire game, actually. We went man-to-man two possessions. It was nothing that we haven’t done all year. I know where you’re going with this ? we played the zone.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on March 8, 2008 at 12:00 pm