WBB : Syracuse gives up 2nd-half lead after St. John’s moves to press
HARTFORD, Conn. – Kim Barnes Arico had a simple message for her team at the half.
With her St. John’s team trailing Syracuse 32-27 at the intermission, Arico told her squad to not get down on itself during the 15-minute respite. She wanted the spirits to remain buoyant because the Red Storm hadn’t used one of the weapons in its arsenal yet: the press defense.
‘I said ‘Just hang in there. We are going to be all right,” Arico said. ”We haven’t pressed. We haven’t done any of that stuff yet. So just go out and we are going to change up some defense and hopefully make a little bit of a run.”
Arico’s hope became a reality.
The St. John’s press, along with an improved overall defensive effort, helped St. John’s defeat Syracuse, 63-61, Friday afternoon in the first round of the Big East tournament. Syracuse turned the ball over 16 times in the game and St. John’s had 26 points off turnovers to send the Orange to its second straight first-round elimination in the Big East Tournament.
‘I thought we had a few turnovers and miscues on our end,’ Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said. ‘And it led to us losing the basketball game.’
In the first half, the Red Storm did not press the Orange and Syracuse took advantage by taking the 5-point edge into the locker room. Syracuse shot 43.8 percent from the field and the Red Storm only held a plus-six advantage in the points off turnovers category.
But in the second half, the Red Storm came out focused on bringing the defensive energy to try and slow down the Orange. It didn’t work well at first, though, as Syracuse came out of the half on a 13-7 run to take an 11-point lead with 12:36 remaining. Syracuse took advantage of the easy opportunities.
The press, though, eventually found a way to make a dent in the Syracuse armor. Syracuse started missing the open shots by forcing the attempts. Rather than take time and let the play develop, Syracuse tried to score quickly and it backfired at times as Syracuse could not add to its lead. Erica Morrow, though, did not think it was all the Red Storm’s efforts.
‘I think it was more of what coach said, us just missing baskets that we usually make,’ Morrow said. ‘I don’t think it was anything different than they did. I think it was more of us.’
St. John’s also forced all eight turnovers in the second half after Syracuse took the 11-point lead, and those eight turnovers led to 14 points for St. John’s. Some were simple turnovers like a traveling violation, while others were from good defense that forced errant passes. Syracuse had just two points off turnovers in the game, and the stark comparison in numbers allowed St. John’s to just keep chipping away at the lead.
Late in the game, Syracuse forward Juanita Ward tried pushing the ball too quickly up the court and traveled. St. John’s scored on the ensuing possession to take its first lead of the second half.
Syracuse would retake the lead one possession later, but St. John’s stole the ball on Syracuse’s next possession and the Red Storm’s Kelly McManmon drained a 3 to give the Red Storm a 59-57 lead with 2:12 to go.
‘I think our pressure caused them to turn the basketball over,’ Arico said. ‘It also resulted in a few easy baskets for them, but the majority of it resulted in positive stuff for us. I think it was definitely due to our defensive pressure.’
Syracuse, though, still took the lead late and even had the ball – albeit with 1.9 seconds left – to try and win the game on a desperation 3. But with no one around her, Tasha Harris traveled and the St. John’s bench exploded in a sign of victory. For Syracuse, it was just another sign of the turnovers in the loss that all but eliminated the Orange from the NCAA Tournament.
‘The pressure slowed us down,’ Hillsman said. ‘I don’t know how much it really turned us over. I don’t know how many times we threw it away in their actual pressure. We got down in transition and missed a lot of shots in transition, which weren’t ok in transition, so that was tough to break their pressure.’
