It’s not often a loss can propel a 14-2 team into the national rankings, but that’s exactly what happened to the Syracuse women’s basketball team.

Six days after losing by six points to No. 1 Connecticut, the media paid respect to Syracuse by giving the upstart team its first-ever ranking, at 24th in the AP poll, following a 73-60 win at Villanova Saturday.

Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman has attributed much of his success to having a deep team. In fact, ask Hillsman just about anything regarding his now-15-3 women’s basketball team, and his answer will probably have something to do with depth.

Like how his team, down 56-54 with six minutes left against Villanova, was able to muster a 19-4 run to close the game and emerge with a 13-point win on the road. After being down by as many as nine in the first half, Syracuse was able to dominate the final minutes and turn a nail-biter into a blowout.

So how much is depth a factor in being able to do that?

‘Oh, it’s huge,’ Hillsman said. ‘Because I think from guarding people and getting stops in the last minutes of a basketball game, it’s all about getting stops and making shots, and we’ve been doing a pretty good job in the last four or five minutes getting stops and making plays down the stretch.’

Just like most of the team’s 14 other wins this season, Hillsman did it with an ensemble cast, led by three or four scoring threats and any number of rebounding leaders. This time out, Chandrea Jones scored 25, Nicole Michael had 18 and 10 different players chipped in on the boards.

For Hillsman, depth is best displayed in late-game situations, and Saturday couldn’t have been a better example of that. Against the Wildcats, Syracuse spread out its minutes, with its starters averaging only 23.8 minutes. Villanova, on the other hand, averaged 31.4 minutes from its starting five. Hillsman said the extra energy allowed Syracuse to exploit match-ups in the closing minutes.

The Orange relied on a strong performance from its bench, which outscored Villanova’s, 23-8. Hillsman’s team has won the bench battle in 15 of its 18 games this season, and has helped the Orange (15-3, 3-2 Big East) out to the best start in school history.

But the Orange depth has helped in more than just shooting. Take rebounding, which Hillsman has identified as a crucial aspect of his game plan. Syracuse remains second in the Big East in that category, but opponents have keyed on rebounds in recent contests. Specifically, those teams have come up with game plans to slow down Fantasia Goodwin, Syracuse’s leading rebounder.

And they have been successful in that, holding Goodwin to single digit boards in her last two outings. But in the Villanova game, even though Goodwin was held to eight rebounds, the team still managed to pull down 50 and win the rebounding margin by 15.

‘Just like you game plan for a scorer, you game plan for a rebounder,’ Hillsman said. ‘People now are recognizing her as a great rebounder. Any time a shot goes up they’re finding her and boxing her out first.’

Syracuse’s depth this year is a stark departure from recent years, when depth was Syracuse’s biggest problem. Last year, when Syracuse went 9-20, the team averaged double-digit minutes from only two bench players. This year, that number has jumped to five.

Hillsman said he has modeled his team around that of Geno Auriemma at Connecticut, who has won five national championships since 1995 with teams that feature multiple scoring threats and deep benches. Emulating that formula, Hillsman came within six points of beating the top-ranked Huskies last week.

And now that deep Syracuse team can claim its first national ranking.

‘I think because of our athleticism and the depth that we have, you can game plan on the offensive end for (Chandrea) and Nicole will burn you,’ Hillsman said.

‘You might game plan for Erica and (Chandrea) will burn you. I think because of our depth and what we have going on right now with so many players that play, it’s kind of hard to just key in on one player, whether it be offensively or maybe just rebounding, we have the kind of people who can just make plays.’

Published on January 21, 2008 at 12:00 pm