Recruiting Chandrea Jones was a process so painstaking that felt like 20 years in the making, Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said.

But with 14 seconds left and Syracuse leading by 25 in Tuesday’s game, Jones walked off the court and straight into Hillsman’s arms, summing it all up in one moment.

‘Chandrea and I have so much history,’ Hillsman said. ‘It was a long couple years recruiting this kid, but it’s been good. She’s a great player and more importantly she has thick skin because she deals with me. And that’s impressive. Without her we’re not nearly where we are today.’

Jones, who paced the Orange with 26 points, including 20 in the second half, walked off the Carrier Dome floor for the final time Tuesday. The senior guard led an offensive outburst propelling SU to a dominating 90-65 win over Canisius in the first round of the NIT.

‘It means a lot,’ Jones said. ‘But the win means more.’

Although the game’s finish was emotional for Jones, the rest was merely business. Hillsman told his star forward before the game to let loose and ‘just score.’

The words resounded in Jones, who broke out in a game more reminiscent of her early season play. Instead of driving the lane, taking bad shots and relying on foul shots like she has of late, Jones picked apart the defense against Canisius, hitting the higher percentage shot nearly every time she got the ball in space.

Jones registered SU’s first points of the game, storming to the basket after forward Nicole Michael won the opening tip.

Swarmed by Canisius’ top defender Brittane Russell, Jones was a constant target of the Golden Griffin’s defense. After a short Canisius run that tied the game at 12, Jones looked to shake her defender and get open. On the next drive down, she shook her defender and buried a mid-range jumper to break the deadlock.

‘Terry and I were playing chess a little bit,’ said Hillsman, referring to Canisius head coach Terry Zeh. ‘They were trying to keep their No. 1 guarding our ball handler at all times.’

The perimeter players supplemented Jones’ game by constantly rotating the ball and spreading out the individual scoring. Guard Erica Morrow notched 25 points, while Tasha Harris tied a season high with 10.

‘Jones and Morrow were completely ridiculous,’ Zeh said.

Forcing the Canisius defense to constantly switch its top defenders from guarding Jones to Morrow to Harris, the Orange got an uncharacteristically large number of open looks and high-percentage shots. The three combined to shoot 22-for-42 from the field.

‘They had two people score 51 points. I mean that hurts the game plan a lot,’ Zeh said. ‘They have that ability. There’s two players as good as you’re going to find. But the big ones were when we took that away, and Harris would hit a 3.’

Despite a 44-29 halftime lead, Jones didn’t let up. On two straight possessions, Jones sat at the top of the key, milking the shot clock, before hitting two long-range jumpers as the buzzer sounded.

In the span of those 10 minutes, Jones scored 10 points, an assist, a steal and one of her team-high 12 rebounds.

As the game wound down, the team began to get wind that Jones was closing in on 1,000 points. Sitting at 997 after hitting a layup with 2:38 left to play, her teammates made her the focal point of the offense.

Although Jones only attempted one more shot, a missed jumper with 46 seconds to play, the guard walked off the court to the applause of 376 fans and the admiration of her head coach.

When asked what it meant to post a team-high 26 in her final game of the Carrier Dome, the soft-spoken Jones just smiled and muttered, ‘I just wanted to go out with a bang.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on March 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm