The shot clanked off the back rim and bounced high in the air straight up, almost above the shot clock perched atop the backboard, seemingly destined to land anywhere but the hoop. And in that moment, that split second of time when the ball was at its apex, the whole world changed for Erica Morrow.

‘It felt like everything just stopped,’ Morrow said. ‘Everyone was just looking, and then it just went up and went in.’

Somehow, some way, that shot that looked like just a brick fell straight down and swished right through the net for a 3-pointer, turning a two-point deficit into a one-point Syracuse lead with 18 seconds left in the game.

Morrow’s magical shot ended an emotional night in the Carrier Dome with a 68-67 Syracuse (21-6, 9-5) win over Georgetown Tuesday night in front of 1,039 fans. The freshman point guard finished with a game-high 22 points on 6-of-11 from the field, including 4-of-6 from deep.

With 7:41 left, the Hoyas (14-13, 4-10) led by 11, 62-51. Morrow scored 10 of her team’s 17 points from the rest of the way, none bigger than a 3-pointer in the final seconds that almost nobody in the building thought had a chance of going in.

The shocked Hoyas called timeout, and the entire Orange bench erupted onto the court and mobbed Morrow. Cintia Johnson reached her first and grabbed her for a bear hug. The rest of the team piled on right after. Even men’s basketball forward Donte Greene, sitting in the first row near the basket, went from a look of anguish when the shot clanked off the back iron, to almost falling over his chair with joy when it fell through.

‘Honestly, I thought it was coming out,’ Georgetown head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy said. ‘That thing just hit the back of the rim and went straight up and straight in. Oh so well. So be it. You see it all the time on ESPN, the shots that go in and the ones that fall out.’

On the ensuing possession, Jaleesa Butler had a chance to give her team the win at the buzzer, but her 35-foot 3-point attempt rimmed out.

It looked like Morrow’s night from the opening tip, as she started the first half hot. She scored Syracuse’s first eight points and hit her first three 3-point attempts. At the 12:22 mark of the first half, Morrow already had 11 points and looked poised to carry her team against a gritty Georgetown squad that upset the Orange on Feb. 2.

Syracuse went into halftime leading, 39-36, but the Hoyas clamped down on Morrow, and she wouldn’t score again until 14:07 remained, a span of more than 19 minutes. She didn’t connect on another field goal until eight minutes later, but it didn’t matter when the last one fell.

After the game, Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman became emotional talking about his star player, remembering when he first saw her play at an Adidas summer camp.

‘I came home and I told my wife, I said, ‘We gotta get this kid. Somehow, some way, we gotta get this kid,” Hillsman said. ‘And she just made a play down the stretch.’

In his postgame press conference, Hillsman almost immediately referenced a game from earlier in the season – the Orange’s 65-59 loss to then-No. 1 Connecticut on Jan. 15. At the end of that game with Syracuse trailing by two, Hillsman called an inbounds play for Morrow to shoot a 3 and give the team a win. The shot missed, though, and the Huskies escaped with the victory.

After that loss, Hillsman defended his player, saying he would give Morrow the last shot every time in a big situation and promised she would hit it the next time.

On Tuesday, in almost the same situation at the end of the game, Hillsman called the exact same play. This time, like Hillsman vowed, Morrow hit the shot, and he was all too happy to remind the media of his earlier comments.

‘After the UConn game when I stood here after Erica missed that shot, I told you we would have another opportunity, and she would have an opportunity to make it,’ Hillsman said. ‘And I told you she would make it, and I know you all thought I was just being a coach, and I called the play again, and she made it and we won.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on February 26, 2008 at 12:00 pm