Iasia Hemingway continued the trend. On Syracuse’s first possession out of halftime, the junior forward caught the ball at the high post and turned to face the basket. Maryland Eastern Shore’s defense overshifted, leaving a gaping hole between Hemingway and the basket.

She slashed down the lane as the Hawks center Chena Parker tried to slide underneath the basket. As Hemingway laid the ball up off the backboard, Parker swung for the block. But she whacked Hemingway across the face as the ball dropped through the hoop.

As the whistle blew to send Hemingway to the free-throw line, where the Orange had made a living in the first half, the Syracuse junior gave an emphatic fist pump to the SU bench.

‘When I get an and-one, I get really excited because, you know, that’s a tough move,’ she said. ‘So I just do what I can to keep my team pumped. To let them know, ‘I’m here with you. We’re going to get this.”

Hemingway ended up missing the free throw, but that was a rarity for the Orange on Wednesday night. Syracuse (5-0) visited the charity stripe 31 times during its 73-50 win over UMES (1-2) in front of 1,011 fans at the Carrier Dome.

It made 26 of those free throws, good for more than a third of its points in the game. And with the SU shooters struggling to find their range, Hemingway and sophomore center Kayla Alexander powered the Orange to the big win. And they were a big part of SU’s 83.9 percent free-throw shooting.

‘It’s good to keep getting to the line because I think that it takes some of their players off the floor,’ SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. ‘Obviously, making them is huge, and if we can keep shooting the ball like that from the free-throw line, the way we rebound the ball, we’re going to be very good.’

As the Orange guards struggled to hit shots from the perimeter (1-for-23 from 3-point range), Alexander and Hemingway controlled the game in the paint. Alexander led the team with 27 points on 9-of-9 shooting. Hemingway finished with 20 and missed only two shots from the field.

‘Our shooting was terrible from the outside,’ sophomore guard Carmen Tyson-Thomas said. ‘Getting the ball inside … that was a big part. Because when you get it up on the rim, we can go get it. We can go crash.’

And in getting the ball into the paint, the Orange repeatedly drew fouls from Hawks defenders. Syracuse was in the shooting bonus with 10:51 left in the first half. UMES forward Shanyce Stewart fouled out with two minutes left in the game. Two other Hawks finished with four fouls.

And Hemingway and Alexander took advantage. When they weren’t scoring over UMES defenders from in close, they were making their trips to the line count. Alexander went 9-of-10 from the charity stripe while Hemingway finished 6-of-7.

‘That’s just us working hard and going hard,’ Alexander said. ‘Following Coach’s game plan, going to work and playing as a team.’

With the Orange missing its third leading scorer, Erica Morrow, due to a bruised right foot and the shooters struggling from the outside, Alexander and Hemingway rose to the occasion.

Alexander turned in a dominant performance from the low post, something that has become typical of the sophomore this year against undersized opponents. Her 27 points broke the career high of 24 she set Monday night against New Hampshire.

And Hillsman said he challenged Hemingway to step up with the absence of Morrow. The transfer from Georgia Tech did just that. Much of her scoring came from her 12 rebounds. But she did flash the ability to drive to the hoop and even hit a long jumper from the top of the free-throw circle.

‘I did what I had to do for my team to get a win,’ Hemingway said. ‘With Erica being out, I just had to play hard. And Coach Q told me I had to come out and step up and play a big role. So I did what I had to do to get the ‘W’ for my team.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on December 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm