WBB : Michael’s hot shooting leads Syracuse past Marquette
Riding junior forward Nicole Michael’s hot-hand against Marquette, the Syracuse women’s basketball team accomplished something it hasn’t done in nearly a month – it began a game with a quick start.
Michael scored the first seven points of the game against the Golden Eagles to propel the Orange to a 7-0 lead. Four minutes into the game, Michael was still the only player in the game to have scored a bucket.
Despite a Marquette scare in the second half, Michael’s 18 points and senior guard Chandrea Jones’ game-high 22 points collectively lifted the Orange (14-6, 3-4 Big East) past the Golden Eagles, 66-55, to claim a crucial Big East victory at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee, Wis. Tuesday night.
Michael’s early shooting prowess aside, Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman also believed the junior forward had a significant influence on the team on the defensive side of the ball.
‘Once you start scoring early you start getting confidence in your offense then your game tends to go a bit easier,’ Hillsman said in a phone interview from Milwaukee. ‘Once we started scoring earlier that raised the energy on the defensive end also.’
Having a rare 10-point lead almost halfway through the first half, Syracuse allowed the Golden Eagles to shoot its way back into contention. Marquette shot 42.9 percent from the field in the first, including four 3-pointers, and trimmed its deficit to one going into halftime.
During the start of the second half, the Orange encountered various obstacles. Sophomore guard Erica Morrow, the team’s leading scorer, was poked in the eye, injured her index finger and got the wind knocked out of her after colliding with an opposing player. As a result, Morrow temporarily left the game.
To make matters worse, Michael, who was already dealing with foul problems, twisted her ankle and had to receive medical attention on the sidelines.
Both players eventually returned and finished the game with no complications, which relieved a concerned Hillsman.
‘They’re both fine,’ Hillsman said. ‘The most important thing was that they were able to return back to the game. They’ll take off tomorrow so they can get their legs back under them and they’ll be OK.’
Due in part to the injuries, the Orange’s offense came out of the second half playing flatter than usual. The Golden Eagles took advantage of the circumstances and eclipsed SU to claim a three-point lead midway through the second half.
But the Orange employed its notorious press defense down the stretch to alter Marquette’s offensive strategy. The pressure got to the Golden Eagles, and as a result, the squad committed nine turnovers in the second half.
Those turnovers ultimately led to points for the Orange on the offensive end. Syracuse finished the game scoring 18 points off of Marquette’s mistakes.
At about the four-minute mark, the squad, led by Jones’ second half scoring frenzy assembled its own 11-4 run to pull away with a double-digit victory in the waning minutes.
‘It was big, obviously, because any road win in our conference is big,’ Hillsman said. ‘It was very important for us to come on the road and play well. We defended their guards and the 3-point shot very well and they didn’t get a lot of open looks.’
