Just over a minute into the second half, Syracuse saw the tied game it had worked throughout the first half to achieve disappear at the hands of the opportunistic South Florida offense.

USF senior center Jessica Lawson yanked down a defensive rebound and kicked the ball upcourt to senior forward Brittany Denson for the layup. Seconds later, Lawson torched the Orange for two more layups, completely disrupting the Orange’s demeanor with a six-point swing.

‘We’re not a grind-it-out kind of team,’ USF head coach Jose Fernandez said. ‘We’re the type of team that preaches about a 10-0 run an 8-0 run or 6-2 run. We need to get out and score. We don’t play five-on-five against anybody.’

South Florida was able to work these intermediate runs throughout the game, pestering an Orange team that would continually fight back only to give up another burst of points, in the Bulls’ 88-79 victory over the Orange Sunday.

But the game play didn’t come as a surprise to any of the Orange players, as defending these runs was the focal point of last week’s game preparations.

‘We expected these things,’ junior forward Nicole Michael said. ‘We scouted them a lot, but they played well.’

Head Coach Quentin Hillsman saw these runs as a product of solid floor balance by USF. The Bulls capitalized on long rebounds and lead passes, scoring in droves while the Orange was forced to continually regroup and try a different plan of attack to get back into the game.

But the scoreboard kept lighting up in quick outbursts: A 7-2 run to start the game, a 9-3 run midway through the first half and eventually, the big one – a 20-10 run midway through the second half which eventually shut the door on the Orange.

With 7:18 left, the run started like many of them did Sunday for USF – off a Janae Stokes 3-pointer. The junior guard went 5-of-11 from 3-point range, this time launching one from the right side of the key, draining a shot that put the Bulls up by four.

The next possession, Lawson hit a quick two, and before the Orange team could get back into their offensive set, Stokes had stolen the ball off SU point guard Tasha Harris and laid it in.

‘I was really concerned with the points off our turnovers,’ Hillsman said. ‘They just did a good job pushing the ball down the floor off our turnovers in transition. We got a team that pretty much gets 46 points that you give to them. It’s difficult to win a basketball game.’

After the game, Hillsman said he could have reworked his defensive scheme to a more aggressive, up-tempo style which would combat the quick-scoring USF offense, but he didn’t want to sacrifice losing points to foul shots and transition scores.

‘We probably could have made a play on the ball, but I called my kids out,’ Hillsman said. ‘I did not want them to get and-ones and transitions, because that could very easily happen. We are a very aggressive team. If you run out, we are trying to make plays on the ball. We just did not want to compound it.’

This isn’t the first time the Orange has fallen victim to a quick-scoring team like USF, though. Just minutes into its 78-57 loss to then-No. 5 Louisville with SU up four, it gave up two consecutive 3-pointers, sparking a 22-7 run for the Cardinals.

The team’s failure to defend the run in recent contests brings up a new point of worry on an already long list for Hillsman and the Orange. With just six regular season games remaining, SU will have to refocus itself on stopping teams from scoring the way USF and Louisville have recently.

‘We just have to keep playing hard and keep working for it,’ senior guard Chandrea Jones said. ‘Our goal is to win, but we didn’t get it. That’s what we keep working for, and we never give up.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on February 8, 2009 at 12:00 pm