Syracuse Wins Big over Florida State on Senior Night

By Brian Armstrong
Photo courtesy cuse.com

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The No. 23/18 Syracuse University women’s basketball team made the most of the emotions from Senior Night by beating No 10/9 Florida State 83-73 at the Carrier Dome Thursday night.

“Senior night, its your last chance to play at the dome and you really just want to leave on a good note,” said Brianna Butler, who scored 16 points on the night, She  went 6-17 from the floor and 4-15 from deep.

Seniors

The senior class that was honored before the game, consisted of Butler, Cornelia Fondren, Maggie Morrison, Taylor Ford and Aliyah Parris as well as Brittney Sykes who is a redshirt junior but wanted to take part with her original class.

Butler's 16 points were second highest for Syracuse on the night. to Alexis Peterson's 17 points. But

Ford may have been the biggest surprise of the game as she went 5-7 from deep finishing with 15 points.

“I though Taylor Ford was huge coming off the bench tonight,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said. "She made shots for us and rebounded the ball,”

Sykes went 4-9 from the floor missing both three point attempts but, she made 7-8 free throws for a total of 15 points.. 

FSU's key senior Adut Bulgak also had a big game as she lead all scorers with 23 points along with pulling down nine rebounds.

First Half

The Orange (21-6, 11-3 ACC) has been known as a second half team this year but this time got out to a fast start and only trailed twice in the first half. Syracuse built a lead as large as 13 points. 

“It’s a Top Ten team, you can't go down ten to a Top Ten team,” Ford said. “All of our emotions were we had to get that lead and once we got it, we weren’t gonna let it go.”

The Seminoles (21-5, 11-2) assisted in their own demise as they tried to play to quickly against the Orange’s press turning the ball over 14 times.

“We just turn the ball over to much and we didn’t get back and defend,” Florida State head coach Sue Semrau said. 

The Orange went on a 15-3 run giving Syracuse a 10-point lead in the first quarter, 26-16. Florida State came back in the second quarter with a 13-0 run of its own to tie it up at 31 halfway through the quarter. 

Florida State shot over 54 percent from the floor on 19-25 shooting. However, that shooting did not carry over to the free throw line as the team shot just over 46 percent on 6 of 13 free throw attempts.

Syracuse held the advantage over Florida State as Syracuse went 9 for 9 in the first half on free throws

The Orange went 15 of 31 from the field but the major distinction between these two teams was from beyond the arc. Florida State went 0-6 from deep where Syracuse made 8-20.

Florida State failed to capitalize on the massive rebound advantage as it outrebounded Syracuse 25 to 11.

Syracuse went into the locker room with a three point halftime lead, 47-44.

Most of this happened with starting center Briana Day on the bench as she only played four minutes due to getting into early foul trouble.

Second Half

Syracuse started the second half off with a seven-point run to go up 54-44 on the back of Sykes who went 4 for 4 from the line.

After game leading scorer Bulgak made the bucket and the foul to cut Syracuse lead to seven, Ford came back the other way and drained a 3 for her third 3 of the game in as many attempts.

Florida State then went on a seven-point run to cut Syracuse’s lead to three with 9:30 left to play. Four of those seven points came from Bulgak.

Sykes answered with a drive down low and converted the bucket and one. Butler added a jumper off the dribble to push the lead to eight.

The Orange women never looked back from there as they went on to lead by no less than eight points for the rest of the game.

Syracuse cooled off in the second half from deep, shooting just 3 of 11. Florida State struggled from three going 0-10 for the game and 0-4 in the second half.

“We didn’t want to shoot the three,” Semrau said. “I thought some of those were forced.”

Notes

Syracuse won the turnover battle as it forced 28 turnovers compared to FSU turning SU over 16 times.

Florida State dominated the boards, outrebounding Syracuse 48-35, which led to a large discrepancy in second chance points with FSU leading 16-1.

FSU potential All-American Shakayla Thomas added to Bulgak's scoring with 17 points of her own.

Next

Syracuse will be on the road for its final two regular season games. The Orange plays at Pittsburgh on Sunday and at Boston College next Thursday, Feb 25.

Florida State will be looking to get back on track,facing  tough competition in ACC leader Notre Dame at home.

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