Michael’s strong play pushes SU to NIT 3rd round
As Nicole Michael emerged from the locker room and went through her routine halftime drills Monday, something was visibly different in her demeanor. No facial expressions. No chatting with teammates. Nothing.
With her team trailing at the intermission, Syracuse’s all-time leading scorer had only registered three points on two shots from the field. And with her squad on the brink of elimination from the WNIT, and with SU head coach Quentin Hillsman pleading, the senior had to do something.
‘I had to respond to Coach’s halftime speech,’ Michael said. ‘It was pretty … yeah … it wasn’t good, so I just responded to that.’
Prompted by a challenge from her coach, the killer instinct returned.
Behind Michael’s 15 second-half points, the Orange came from behind to secure a late 69-55 victory over Richmond in the second round of the WNIT at Manley Field House in front of a crowd of 316. The win gives SU a program record 24 wins on the season heading into Friday’s matchup against another Richmond, Va., squad — Virginia Commonwealth.
After an uneventful first half, Michael and the Orange snapped out of its first-half funk and put on an offensive clinic in the second. Jumping out to an 8-2 run through the first 2:20 of the half, the Orange began imposing its will upon the smaller, less-athletic Spiders. SU outscored the Spiders 46-26 in the second half.
‘Take away her 15 points in the second half and we would’ve lost,’ junior guard Erica Morrow said. ‘She’s just so big on every play, whether it’s a tip, an offensive or defensive rebound or a shot. She’s a key part to our success and without her, it would be tough to win.’
The Orange played uninspired basketball for the first 20 minutes. Only six trips to the charity stripe. Fifteen turnovers to just four assists. The hustle plays, seemingly nonexistent.
But that changed in the second half, largely thanks to Michael. From the first minute after halftime, she made her presence felt. Slashing to the basket, post up, and drawing fouls in the paint led to easy points. Just 1:23 into the half, Michael stripped the ball from Richmond guard Crystal Goring, and weaved through two defenders on the fast break before easily getting to the rim.
On the ensuing possession, Michael immediately took it right at Richmond guard Danielle Bell on a post move, using her obvious height advantage and length around the basket. That kind of scoring mentality was evident on nearly every possession.
‘We have a lot of different sets that we can run to get her the ball,’ Hillsman said. ‘We went back to freshman year when we gave her the ball every possession, and we just did a few things to give her the ball in the spots closer to the basket where she can score and didn’t have to put the ball on the floor a lot. And that was big.’
Though Michael had an obvious size advantage, she said she was a bit hesitant when Hillsman told her to go down in the post and do some damage. But after connecting on a few early baskets, she kept going back to what came naturally.
‘At first I was kind of surprised that (Hillsman) wanted me to go into the post, but I just responded to what he wanted me to do,’ Michael said. ‘I went down, played strong down there and did pretty well.’
With Michael leading the way, SU started clicking on all cylinders. Following Michael’s example, the Orange started imposing its will. According to Morrow, SU started doing the ‘little things’ that it wasn’t doing in the first half.
Aside from Michael’s scoring, Morrow said that was the difference. After committing more than a dozen turnovers in the first half, the Orange turned the ball just four times in the second. With the turnovers held to a minimum, SU went 15-of-27 from the field.
It was a tale of two halves for SU. As a result, Hillsman’s squad survives and advances to the third round of the WNIT.
And in the locker room after the game, Michael was uncharacteristically all smiles.
‘I just wanted to win,’ Michael said, trying her best to hide the grin. ‘And my team wanted to win. We just wanted to keep playing. So I was just happy every time I made a good play, every time my team made a good play.’
