New defense leads women’s basketball team to first ever playoff victory
Although he knew his new defense might not be implemented this season, Quentin Hillsman knew he had to make a change. After watching opponents light up the Orange in its patented zone all year, Hillsman installed a full-court man defense four days ago, despite the fact that his team’s postseason aspirations were in limbo.
‘I said, let’s change the whole way we’re going to play, not knowing if we were getting into NIT or not,’ Hillsman said. ‘So we came back Sunday and started practicing, and I said to the girls, ‘Look, we’re going to play full-court man-to-man and extend out and guard your man.”
Tuesday night in the opening round of the NIT was the Orange’s first chance to show the world its newfound approach to defense. The new defensive mindset certainly made an impression.
After dabbling in man defense at the end of the season, Syracuse played almost completely full-court man defense and dominated Canisius, 90-65, inside the Carrier Dome Tuesday night in front of 376 people. Syracuse won its first postseason game in program history and will play at Bowling Green Sunday at 2 p.m.
‘I’m just very, very pleased with them because we did this in three days,’ Hillsman said. ‘We’re going to play from this day forward, we’re going to get out and extend the floor and pressure and fly out on 3’s and guard the ball.’
Staring with the regular-season finale against Providence, Hillsman started to use a man defense instead to the zone defense he normally draws. It provided a new and unfamiliar challenge for opponents, and it contained both the Providence and St. John’s offenses in the process.
But once the Orange (17-14) was eliminated from the Big East tournament, Hillsman went out recruiting and realized he had to make a decision about whether the team would be a zone team or one that forces pressure. When the team came back Sunday with his decision to play man, he noticed a new excitement.
He said the players would talk about rotating in different ways and seemed to be excited about this completely different defensive scheme.
‘It’s a 360 turnaround,’ said guard Erica Morrow, who finished with 25 points. ‘First day we came in off our break we stated going right at it. I think we’re all adjusting well.’
On Tuesday night, the Orange played like a seasoned team in the man-to-man. The Orange contested shots and prevented Canisius from getting any rhythm offensively, as it took a 44-29 lead into the half.
Hillsman complimented players like Marisa Gobuty, Tyler Ash and Juanita Ward for their ability to get out and guard in the open floor. The man-to-man also resulted in plenty of steals, such as Chandrea Jones’ takeway and assist to Morrow that gave the Orange a 42-26 lead in the first half, or her steal in the second that extended the Orange’s lead to 79-60 after a layup.
With such pressure, Canisius’ shooting percentage also took a dip. The Golden Griffins (24-9) only shot 30.6 percent for the game and only 31 percent from deep. Of Canisius’ 62 shots in the game, 29 were from 3-point range, so Syracuse’s ability to consistently guard the 3 prevented the Golden Griffins from getting anything going deep. Syracuse’s backcourt limited the Golden Griffins starting guard trio to only six 3’s.
Canisius head coach Terry Zeh said Syracuse knew the Golden Griffins could shoot the 3 well and made the necessary changes.
‘They knew if they played zone, we could probably hang around a little bit,’ Zeh said. ‘We got some shots early, and we had to hurry up a little bit when there’s that rush.’
With the pressure defense forcing Canisius to miss shots, Syracuse also cleaned up on the rim. Syracuse out-rebounded Canisius, 51-32, grabbing 30 defensive rebounds in the process. Jones, Nicole Michael and Ash all grabbed at least seven rebounds.
With tangible results in its hand, the Syracuse players are pleased with the chance to continue to use this new defense. In its first game fully using man-to-man, Syracuse held its second-straight opponent to under 70 points and finally won a postseason game.
‘We were excited to get out there and guard,’ Jones said. ‘We’re looking forward to doing it some more and seeing what comes out of it.’
