Day Sparks Syracuse Past Penn State

Story and photos by Thomas Zhou

Syracuse, N.Y-

It was Briana Day’s night.

Day had 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting, leading the Orange in scoring for the first time this season. Her 13 rebounds, six blocks, and three steals all were team-high. Day’s dominance on both offense and defense gave the Syracuse women’s basketball team (6-1) a 61-39 victory over Penn State (1-6) on Thursday night at the Carrier Dome.

“Briana Day is awesome,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “She is really in the fight. Every rebound, every position she’s balanced. Every catch she’s trying to make a play. We got her in the high post and low, short corner... she has been tremendous.”

Junior guard Cornelia Fondren finished with a double-double. She had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Her fellow junior guard Brianna Butler added 14 points and dished out four assists. 

Syracuse dominates

Syracuse and Penn State exchanged the lead six times in the first seven minutes. The scoreboard stopped for about three minutes at 13-11 with the Orange leading,  before Day grabbed an offensive rebound and scored with a jumper.

SU then broke the game open.

Day’s layup sparked the Orange to 14-0 run. During that five-minute-and-six-second span, Day scored seven points, including an and-one play. Syracuse expanded its lead to 31-15, with 4:17 left in the first half.

 

The Orange ended up the first half with a 35-19 lead. While the SU women shot 12-of-40 from the floor, they forced 10 turnovers from the Lady Lions and had nine points off those turnovers. Day went 4-of-5 and made all five free throws in the period.

 

Day blocked a shot and finished with a transition layup, two and a half minutes into the second half, forcing a timeout by Penn State.  Although it was her only field goal in the second half, Day also grabbed eight more rebounds.

“She is a really quick leaper,” Penn State head coach Coquese Washington said. “Her second or third jump is really fast. If you are a quick leaper and you get good anticipation skill, you can be a fantastic rebounder.”

The Lady Lions intensified the attack and guard Lindsey Spann had all the points points in a 8-0 run to cut the lead to 14 with 7:30 left in the game. But that was the closest they  got. Penn State had another 10 turnovers in the second half. Spann's 11 points made her the only double-figure scorer on her team. 

When Day checked out with 37 seconds left in the game, her teammates on the bench stood up and high-fived with her.

“She’s doing a tremendous job,” Hillsman said. “You can’t ask for much more.”

Shooting trouble

The Orange had 73 field goal attempts in the game, but only made 22 (30.1 percent). Of those 73 attempts, 40 were from behind the arc, and the Orange made seven (17.5 percent).

Butler, who had made 14 of her 41 three-point attempts (34.1 percent) in six previous games, went 4-of-19 (21.1 percent) from behind the arc on Thursday. None of the other players on the team made more than one three-pointer.

Hillsman said Butler should have taken 30 shots because she had passed up many open chances and should shoot at every possible chance.

“I sound crazy but I have been really serious,” Hillsman said.

To Hillsman, shooting at open chances is what a shooter does, no matter how cold she is.

“She’s a spacer and she’s a shooter,” Hillsman said. “If she takes 30 she might make 16 of them. So she has to keep shooting the ball.”

Butler admitted it was hard when she didn't shoot well, but she echoed the coach’s words.

“They can be (discouraging) when you don’t see the ball go through the net,” Butler said. “They can be hard for you as a player. But you have to continue to be positive. Coach always tells me to shoot the ball more and my teammates always tell me to shoot. So that’s always encouraging for me.”

 

Looking forward

The Orange will have 10 days off before it hosts its next opponent, North Carolina Central. The game will start at 7 p.m. on Dec. 14.