NewhouseSports SMC: SU Women's Basketball Dominates Again, Beating Maine, 97-42

Story, photos and video by Jasmine Haynes
Game wrap videography by Brittany Jones

The Syracuse women's basketball team started the game Sunday with the same momentum as Wednesday's record setting, 113-42, win against Maryland Eastern Shore. The Orange dominated the game from the tip, going on a 12-0 run in the first three minutes and 48 seconds of the first half.

Although Syracuse did not score 100 points, the Orange came close. Freshman guard Alexis Peterson stalled the ball with eight seconds left in the game to cap the final score at 97-42 against the Black Bears.

"Overall, I think we did an awesome job of just really getting up and down the floor and playing aggressive," head coach Quentin Hillsman said.

Four Syracuse players scored double digit points. Sophomore guard Brittney Sykes led the Orange with 19. Sophomore guard Brianna Butler chipped in 15 and freshman guard Isabella Slim added ten. Freshman forward Briana Day did not start but proved to be a key factor off the bench for the Orange. Day finished with a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds. Her showing in Sunday's game was a drastic turnaround from her performance of only six points and three rebounds against Maryland Eastern Shore. Her goal coming into the game today was simple.

"Slow down," Day said. "Because I've been struggling the last four games with taking my time and slowing down. I definitely did that tonight which my coaches have been heckling me about."

Senior guard Ashleigh Roberts led the Black Bears with 14 points and sophomore forward Liz Wood added ten. But the Black Bears allowed the Orange to score 35 points off their 27 turnovers. The Orange capitalized on the Black Bears mistakes allowing the Orange to put the game out of reach by halftime.

With the Orange leading by 40 points at the start of the second half, Hillsman began to rest his starters three minutes in. All 14 players on the roster saw playing time of at least six minutes giving the bench a chance to gain some experience early in the season.

Even in a blowout game, taking care of the fundamentals is important, Hillsman said.

"We still have to play clean basketball, not throwing it away, controlling tempo, playing fast, and getting our defenses set. I thought we did an excellent job of doing that."

The win keeps the Orange with a perfect record of 5-0 giving Maine its first loss of the season. The Black Bears fell to 3-1. Hillsman hopes his team will carry this momentum to the Virgin Islands this week as the Orange prepares for the Paradise Jam Tournament.

"Obviously we're really happy, to get to this point not having a loss [headed] to the Virgin Islands undefeated." "

"It feels really good to not go down in a loss because that would really [stink]," Day said. "And practice tomorrow would be death [if we would have lost this game headed into the tournament.]"

"I'm real excited to get down there," Brianna Butler added. "I've never been to the Virgin Islands but it's also a business trip so we have to be very serious, take care of business, and come back with wins hopefully."

The Orange won't have it easy in St. Thomas. Syracuse will play Memphis, Texas, and 13th ranked Texas A&M in a round robin style tournament. The Orange will face Texas first on Thanksgiving Day at 8:15 p.m.

Syracuse will face the highest ranked team it has played this season in Texas A&M. Hillsman knows this tournament will require his team to play hard. That's why his main concern is the impact of traveling on player performance.

"Obviously we're going to a place with a warm climate but the travel can beat you up," he said. "The travel is grueling and once we get there we will try to get our bodies adjusted [from relaxing for a couple of days] to [having to play] Texas."

"We're going to be playing tougher teams that are on a [better] skill level so it's going to be a little tough," Day said. " But we have to be mentally prepared for it."