As Kiara Lewis’ back hit the floor on the far end of the court, Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman wasn’t sure what happened. He surveyed the sideline. Was it out of bounds? Offensive foul? He marched to the scorer’s table and saw his team celebrating. After the Orange couldn’t find the net much in the first half, Hillsman knew when the shots started to fall: SU was coming back.

No. 13 Syracuse (16-4, 5-2 Atlantic Coast) dominated Duke (9-10, 1-6), 64-55, in Cameron Indoor Stadium to stop a two-game skid which looked on its way to three-straight following a poor-shooting first half in which the Orange hit just six of their 29 shots. The ensuing turnaround — fueled by 17 points in the second half from Lewis — was the first time the Orange erased a 10-point lead this season.

“We’re a good team,” Hillsman said. “If we can score the ball, we can make shots and we can get into our pressure, then we’re going to be really good.”

Prior to Sunday, the Orange had been on their worst shooting streak of the season. Following a loss to Georgia Tech in which the Orange shot a paltry 23.9 percent from the field and 19 percent from beyond the 3-point arc (both season-lows at the time), multiple of SU’s shooters stayed back in the Carmelo K. Anthony Center and took 100 shots each from both inside the arc and beyond the 3-point line. Hillsman said it was an attempt to “shoot out” of the struggles from the field.

But the Orange’s strategy proved futile the following game. SU mustered just 36.4 percent shooting with a season-worst 15.9 percent 3-point clip. Though Syracuse took 26 more shots than Miami on Jan. 23, SU ended on the wrong side of an 84-71 loss — its first in the Carrier Dome this season.

Many times, the Orange’s scoring comes in spurts. In the first quarter, Syracuse followed that thread and, at times, seemed to have found the mark. Amaya Finklea-Guity opened up the Orange’s scoring with a layup plus a foul and then another layup the next time down the floor. Then Tiana Mangakahia hit a 3-pointer. A few possessions later,  Lewis added a three. Though the Orange went back to their cold-shooting tendency that’s come about in their past three games, the Blue Devils were without its shooting touch too.

“I don’t think anybody can say that and be factual,” Hillsman said of what he thinks is behind SU’s shooting struggles. “Anybody who figures that out is a basketball coach that’s going to make a lot of money, right?”

After a few points at the line, the Orange recorded another field goal on a 3-pointer from Miranda Drummond with 1:01 remaining in the first quarter. Despite a difficult 5 for 17 shooting in the first frame, the Orange went to the first intermission with a five-point lead. But as SU’s struggles persisted, Duke’s shots began to fall.

The Blue Devils used a 14-4 second-quarter run, including a 12-1 run to end the quarter to take a five-point lead at the break. Syracuse shot 1 for 13 from the floor and didn’t record a field goal for the last 8:48 before the half.

But the Orange turned it around in the third quarter. Djaldi-Tabdi knocked in a layup through contact and completed a three-point play then Lewis hit a 3-pointer from the right elbow that forced a Duke timeout. Hillsman did his usual crouch and clapped his way onto the floor. After the Duke timeout, Djaldi-Tabdi hit a layup down low again and then the Orange found Lewis in the same spot in the corner. She hit a three and was bumped on the play, giving her another shot at the line where she completed the four-point play. The next time down, Lewis was open in the same spot. And the Orange’s barrage continued.

Hillsman said that out of halftime the Orange noticed the corner shot was left open, where Lewis hit both her 3-pointers in a row. Syracuse tried to screen the top guard on the perimeter, and Hillsman said once the Orange got to Duke’s second and third defenders, they would have the Blue Devils outnumbered which left an opening on the wing.

Though the shooting struggles have drained SU in its previous two games, the Orange avoided disaster by continuing to take them. With 1:33 remaining in the game, and Duke threatening as the Orange started to fall off their rhythm, Mangakahia took a shot from beyond the arc, pushed the lead to 10 and never looked back.

“Yeah, it’s clutch,” Hillsman said of his junior point guard’s ability to finish games. “It’s clutch play.”

Published on January 27, 2019 at 3:33 pm

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary