Each time South Florida took the ball up the floor in the first half, Syracuse’s bench players were constantly hollering to their teammates to blanket Bulls’ sharpshooters Jasmine Wynne and Inga Orekhova.

With that communication and heightened defensive awareness, the SU 2-3 zone extended to hinder the Bulls offense all game long.

‘We did an excellent job of the total team effort,’ SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. ‘They really pulled together and helped each other, and that’s what teams do. We need help and people to step up and, overall, I thought that our team did an excellent job of being a team and playing together today.’

Syracuse (15-9, 4-6 Big East) neutralized South Florida’s (12-12, 4-6 Big East) primary scoring threats with suffocating defense and earned a 76-61 victory over the Bulls inside the Carrier Dome on Saturday. The Orange’s renewed focus on the defensive end paid dividends as it limited USF to few clean looks at the basket throughout the game.

SU went into the game focusing on the capabilities of Orekhova around the perimeter. And at the top of the zone, Orange guards Rachel Coffey and Elashier Hall made it a point to close out on the shooters around the arc.

Orekhova hit her only shot of the game with about nine minutes to go in the first half. She entered the game hitting 37.5 percent of her shots from beyond the arc, but the Orange held her to just two attempts from 3-point range, and she finished just 1-of-5 shooting from the field.

‘I thought another thing that we did a very good job of was not giving Inga open 3s,’ Hillsman said. ‘She’s a tremendous shooter, and she shoots with range, and obviously when you’re in a zone and they can stretch you to that magnitude, you really have to get out and pressure her and that kind of stretched us out a little bit, but overall we did an excellent job on her.’

The 2-3 zone that has often struggled to rotate during the season was getting out and contesting shots all over the floor. Forward Iasia Hemingway served as the leader on defense. On the low block, she continuously shrieked at her teammates to match up and pointed to the open shooters.

Hall said the communication level really helped as she guarded the perimeter of the zone.

‘They always told me I had a big mouth, and I had to use it to my advantage,’ Hemingway said laughing. ‘That’s my best bet, just to make sure I constantly call out. I see everything going up the floor.’

The one major defensive lapse came midway through the second half. With the Orange leading by 31 and 7:14 on the clock, the Bulls full-court press forced Coffey to turn the ball over on two straight possessions.

And South Florida converted those turnovers into opportunities in transition offensively. As a result, the Bulls got to the rim far more easily than they did in the first half. A spirited 16-3 run cut the Orange’s lead to 18 points.

But then SU’s defense refocused to end the USF comeback.

Syracuse double-teamed Andrell Smith, who contributed 11 points during that stretch, and Hemingway knocked the ball away from her. The Syracuse forward then sliced through the lane from the left side and threaded a bounce pass to Alexander on the baseline for a short jumper.

‘We were very aggressive defensively,’ Hall said. ‘We knew we had to get this game, and they were a good transition team and they ran a lot, so we had to get back and play tough ‘D.”

Hillsman attributed the strong defensive performance to finally scoring the basketball with consistency. The Orange’s strong shooting performance — 45 percent from the field — immobilized South Florida’s transition attack and allowed SU to set up its defense.

The Syracuse players altered and defended USF’s shots in its half-court sets, and the pressure led to 20 forced turnovers and seven blocked shots for the Orange.

And that stout defensive performance helped SU coast to an easy conference victory.

‘If we make shots we can get our defense set, and that’s been the hard part from the beginning of the year,’ Hillsman said. ‘People started asking me if I went away from my pressure, and the answer is no. You got to hit shots to get your press set up, and if you don’t hit shots you can’t press.’

adtredin@syr,edu 

Published on February 4, 2012 at 12:00 pm