At halftime of the Syracuse women’s basketball team’s 62-54 loss to Notre Dame last night, something wasn’t quite right.

Notre Dame had held Julie McBride, the Orangewomen’s leading scorer, scoreless.

McBride, who came in averaging 16 points, finished with just six on 2-of-11 shooting last night. The output was McBride’s second worst this year, trailing only a five-point performance in SU’s 75-46 blowout of St. John’s on Jan. 29.

“I didn’t shoot well,” McBride said. “A couple shots came at the end of the shot clock. I passed up a couple of shots. (Notre Dame) was tall.”

Indeed, with 6-foot-2 forwards Katy Flecky and Jacqueline Batteast anchoring the middle of Notre Dame’s 1-3-1 zone, the 5-foot-4 McBride couldn’t find her shot.

“I had to constantly tell her tonight, ‘Julie, they’re 6-foot-2, 6-foot-3. You’re not going to get your shot off. You can’t create anything tonight,’ “ SU head coach Marianna Freeman said. “Once she got into that flow, she played very well.”

In the second half, McBride grew more selective. Her first points came three minutes into the half on a wide-open 3-pointer off a pass, not the dribble.

McBride finished with seven assists to go with four rebounds. She committed just three turnovers, down from the nine she had against Pittsburgh on Saturday.

“When Julie’s not hitting — and a lot of her game is scoring — then we struggle, because then I have to change her focus,” Freeman said. “She played very well in the second half.”

Where’d it go?

Something funny happened to SU guard Rochelle Coleman last night.

She lost her shot.

“Where it went, I don’t know,” Coleman said. “Maybe you could find it for me.”

At first, Coleman was winning the game of hide-and-seek with her jumper. Notre Dame’s zone left her wide open in the corner. After missing her first 3-pointer, Coleman nailed three straight in the first four minutes.

After the hot start, Coleman went 2 of 11 from beyond the arc, finishing 5 of 15. She made her only 2-point shot and finished with a team-high 17 points.

Notre Dame tried several defenses to stop Coleman, including a man-to-man and a 2-3 zone.

“She had a heck of a game,” Irish coach Muffet McGraw said. “Coming in, we knew we had to stop her, and we talked frequently in timeouts about it.”

A kind rim helped. Coleman’s fourth 3-point attempt bounced off the back iron, soared higher than the shot clock and whisked through the net.

“That was lucky,” Coleman said. “I’ll take it.”

Crying foul

After committing nine fouls in the first half, SU concentrated on keeping its hacks to a minimum in the second.

Ironically, the Orangewomen didn’t foul enough. Trailing, 58-54, with 27 seconds left, Syracuse had committed four second-half fouls. SU needed to foul to extend the game but was forced to foul three times before Notre Dame would shoot one-and-one free throws.

Desperately trying to conserve time, McBride was whistled for an intentional foul when she grabbed guard Le’tania Severe on an inbounds play.

“We needed to foul quickly,” Freeman said. “Julie tried to foul before the ball was thrown. The kid takes off, and Julie fouls her. Not very smart.”

Dizzy Diop

SU center Awa Diop left the game with 5:34 remaining after stopping near midcourt with her arm around Shannon Perry and gently falling to the ground.

On the previous Notre Dame possession, Diop dove for a loose ball.

“I fell on my head, and I got up too quickly,” Diop said. “I felt dizzy. I needed to take a little break.”

A trainer helped Diop to the sidelines, where she sat keeled over in a chair and then laid down on a nearby pole-vault mat. After going through tests, Diop re-entered the game with a little more than a minute left.

This and that

Notre Dame forward Alicia Ratay, who buried three 3-pointers in the final five minutes, is on pace to become the NCAA’s all-time best 3-point shooter. She hits 48.1 percent of her 3’s. … Both teams shot 40 percent. SU went 21 of 52, and Notre Dame went 23 of 57. … Syracuse had 12 turnovers in the first half compared to six in the second. … McGraw said she believes her team clinched an NCAA Tournament berth with the win. Notre Dame is No. 26 in the RPI ranking.

Published on March 4, 2003 at 12:00 pm