Quentin Hillsman refused to slow the game down. Even when Syracuse had only scored six points eight minutes in, he told his squad to keep shooting.

‘They have to,’ he said. ‘They can’t pass up shots. They’ve got to take open shots. We can’t get to a point where we’re gun-shy, and we stop shooting.’

Doing exactly what its coach insisted, the Orange (3-0) shot its way out of an early shooting slump, rolling over Long Island, 90-36, Monday. Sparked by Carmen Tyson-Thomas’ back-to-back 3’s, SU went on to shoot 63 percent from the field and eight 3-pointers for the rest of the first half.  SU finished the game shooting 45.6 percent from beyond the arc.

What began as an ugly shooting performance for the Orange, ended with the Orange emptying its bench in a route over the Blackbirds (2-1).

‘We shoot every single play every day, so we know there’s going to be different stretches where we might not make any baskets,’ said senior guard Erica Morrow, who led the team with 16 points and six assists. ‘We stuck to our scheme, and we just got through it.’

While the Orange stifled Long Island on the defensive end early, its offense could not muster up any scoring. Leading scorer Kayla Alexander picked up two early fouls and was relegated to the bench. With her out, Syracuse struggled to find rebounds for second-chance points, something it has thrived on through its first two games.

So instead of relying on second-chances, SU started capitalizing on its first opportunities. Tyson-Thomas, who had missed her first four shots, hit a quick three after a Blackbird turnover to put SU up 9-7 with 12:16 left in the first half. On the next Orange possession, Morrow dished the ball to the sophomore in the corner where she drained her second three in a row.

‘(Assistant) coach (Rick) Moody always tells me to keep shooting,’ said Tyson-Thomas, who matched Morrow’s team-leading 16 points. ‘Just shoot out of it. That’s the best thing you can do as a shooter is shoot out of the slump.’

Morrow said the back-to-back 3’s for Tyson-Thomas got the team going and she extended the run shortly after. After a Troya Berry steal, Morrow hit a transition three from the right corner. The next possession, she knocked down a shot from behind the arc with Blackbird guard Krystal Wells in her face, giving the Orange a 20-9 lead.

Five different players drained a shot from beyond the arc for the Orange, with four players hitting on multiple opportunities. That’s something the Orange hasn’t had in quite some time.

‘They were going underneath every screen,’ Hillsman said. ‘So she was really able to come off and get her feet together and shoot the ball. They went under every screen that we set so she got some pretty good looks at the basket.’

Long Island called a timeout after Morrow’s second three to try to cool off SU’s shooters, but it was to no avail. Senior guard Tasha Harris eventually got into the mix, hitting two back-to-back 3’s of her own late in the half to extend the Orange lead. By halftime, Syracuse had turned a 1-for-10 performance into a 45-18 laugher.

Entering the game against the Blackbirds, SU was shooting just 25.5 percent from beyond the arc. But Monday night, with its leading scorer Alexander playing just four minutes in the first half, five different players knocked down 3’s as the Orange put on a shooting show.

‘We just focus on taking good (shots),’ Hillsman said. ‘I thought they took good ones. As long as we have the right people taking good shots, then I think we have a good shot at making them.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on November 21, 2010 at 12:00 pm