For Iasia Hemingway, it got to a point in the second half where it didn’t matter how Eastern Michigan tried to defend her.

Tasha Harris and Troya Berry had already told their Syracuse teammate that every time she got the ball, she needed to go to the basket.

Hemingway took that message to heart. The Eagles could send whomever they wanted and however many they wanted at the junior forward. It wouldn’t change anything.

‘It didn’t matter,’ Hemingway said. ‘I was actually trying to go before they got there. I just kept attacking the rim. And hopefully, they were going in.’

A lot of them went in Thursday for Hemingway as she powered the Orange (25-9) to a 72-63 win over Eastern Michigan (24-13) in the third round of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament. The transfer finished with 29 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in front of 286 fans in the Carrier Dome. And nearly all of those points came on drives from the high post. EMU did manage to hang around until the last five minutes, but fittingly, Hemingway led the Orange on an 12-2 run to close out the game.

Hemingway and SU will face Toledo on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Savage Arena in the quarterfinals of the WNIT.

‘It was the best scoring game I’ve seen her have,’ SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. ‘I think that what she did all around was one of the best performances I’ve seen in the high post in a long time.’

In the first half, Eastern Michigan’s goal was to take sophomore center Kayla Alexander out of SU’s offense. When Hemingway caught the ball at the free-throw line, the Eagles gave her space and doubled Alexander on the block.

But EMU soon realized that strategy would not work.

‘Hemingway figured that out quickly and started driving to the basket,’ EMU head coach AnnMarie Gilbert said. ‘… Instead of us being there on the catch, we allowed her to catch it and then she would just give a jab step either way and was able to get to the basket.’

Hemingway finished with 12 points in the first half, but Syracuse allowed the Eagles hang around by committing 13 turnovers before halftime. That led to just a 34-32 lead for the Orange at the break.

EMU used a 22-point performance from junior forward Paige Redditt mixed with some timely 3-point shooting to stay close throughout the second half. The Eagles never trailed by more than six points, and even took a 61-60 lead with 5:16 left.

But Hemingway willed the Orange to the victory late.

Gilbert adjusted her team’s defense to account for Hemingway’s drives from the high post. The Eagles doubled Hemingway whenever she got the ball in the high post and left Alexander underneath.

But nothing worked. Syracuse scored 15 points in the last 7:18 of the second half. Hemingway scored 10 of them. And she assisted on the other two buckets.

‘She was really in the zone,’ Gilbert said. ‘And there aren’t a lot of players that get in a zone on us.’

In that final decisive stretch after the Eagles took a one-point lead, Hemingway took over. The forward went 1-of-2 at the free-throw line coming out of a timeout but chased down her own rebound on the second shot. She drove straight to the hoop and laid the ball in off the glass to put SU up 63-61.

Two more free throws by Hemingway extended the lead to four. EMU finally started cutting off her drives on SU’s next two possessions, but she adjusted. First, she kicked the ball out to sophomore Elashier Hall for a corner 3-pointer. On the next possession, she squeezed a pass in between two defenders to Alexander for an easy finish underneath.

That series turned a one-point SU deficit into a 70-61 lead with 1:28 left. EMU scored once more, but Hemingway fittingly closed out the scoring with yet another free-throw line drive for an easy layup.

‘I really don’t look,’ Hemingway said. ‘I just attack the rim. … I just play hard every possession and when I go to the basket, I look to score.’

zjbrown@syr.edu

Published on March 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm