College Basketball: Griffs’ best women’s season in Division I ends with loss to Big East opponent
Canisius women crushed by the Orange
SU changes defense, dominates Canisius
SYRACUSE — The shots hit the rim all evening long and Syracuse did what Big East teams can do — run and rebound and get second-chance shots.
While the Canisius women’s basketball team came up with a few good runs, it was simply overwhelmed by the Orange, 90-65, in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament in the Carrier Dome on Wednesday night.
The Golden Griffins ended their best season of Division I women’s basketball with a 24-9 record and only their second postseason tournament appearance.
“There are 112 teams that go to the postseason combined from NCAA and WNIT,” Canisius coach Terry Zeh said. “Only two of those teams end their season with a win while 110 end with a loss. We didn’t have our best game today but I told the team in the locker room that we’re not going to allow that to diminish what they’ve accomplished. Twenty-four wins is a lot of wins and they’ve worked really hard for that.”
Syracuse (17-14) advanced to the second round and a matchup at Bowling Green on Sunday — and it did so with a new-look defense.
The Orange have typically been a zone team, something that potentially boded well for the sharp-shooting Griffs. But three days before the WNIT field was announced, Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman decided that he had enough of opponents lighting it up from three-point range. So he put in an aggressive, full-court man-to-man.
And it frustrated anything Canisius wanted to do as the Griffs shot just 30.6 percent (19 of 62) from the field and were 9 of 29 (31.0 percent) from three-point range.
“Their scramble hurried our shots more than we’re used to,” said senior Amanda Cavo, who led Canisius with 15 points. “We couldn’t get our inside-out looks, which is the natural rhythm for us. We prepared more for zone and their scramble put us a little off our pace.”
After a slow start by both teams, the Orange dominated the paint by attacking the rim and controlling the glass. Its penchant for getting to the rim for easy shots allowed the Orange to shoot a cool 50 percent from the field while dominating the glass, outre-bounding the Griffs, 51-32.
Deeper into the stat sheet that translated into 28 points in the paint and 21 second- chance points.
“For me, rebounding is huge,” Hillsman said. “We had a lot of second-chance opportunities and to play that fast and have only 15 turnovers is good for us. The impressive thing for me is second-chance points and the fact that we had 17 points in transition.”
A crowd of 376 watched both teams go cold offensively for a stretch in the first half, stuck on an 8-4 Syracuse lead for four minutes and 13 seconds.
But back-to-back three-pointers by Micayla Drysdale gave the Griffs a 10-8 lead at 12:48 of the first half.
Canisius led, 12-10, but Syracuse started attacking and getting to the glass, going on a 16-5 run to take control of the game.
Just how athletic is Syracuse?
Consider that Brittane Russell was on a clean breakaway for a layup off a turnover when Orange sophomore guard Erica Morrow came streaking back and, instead of fouling, cleanly grabbed the ball with both hands for a jump ball.
On the ensuing Syracuse possession Tasha Harris hit a jumper to give the Orange a commanding 44-29 halftime lead.
The game would open up for the Orange in the second half and with skill, speed and strength Syracuse cruised to the win.
Morrow was the star of the game for the Orange. She seemed to be involved on every play — from creating turnovers on defense to tracking down her own offensive rebound for a bucket and a foul. She finished with 25 points while teammate Chandrea Jones had a game-high 26.
Cavo’s 15 points came on 4-of-12 shooting, including 2 of 9 from three-point range. Marie Warner also ended her one-year senior career with the Griffs, scoring 13 points with seven rebounds, while senior J. J. Williams had four points.
Drysdale added 11 points while Russell had nine points, five rebounds and four assists.
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