The Syracuse women’s basketball team has been a second half-team in 2007, but its strong finishes have only led to one win in the new year.

SU (8-13, 2-6) has averaged 35 points in the second half the last 10 games, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the team’s offense. Meanwhile the Orange has struggled coming out of the gate, averaging just 24 points in the first half.

The Orange has lost four straight games and hopes to reverse its recent losing trend against West Virginia (14-7, 5-3) tonight at 7 p.m. in Morgantown, W.Va. SU needs to have a better start against the Mountaineers or it will again have to dig itself out from another substantial hole.

Syracuse sophomore guard Cintia Johnson said the team’s inability to come out strong has been one of its biggest weaknesses. She said all the players need to get in the right mindset to start the game if they want to win.

‘I don’t know what’s wrong with us,’ Johnson said. ‘I don’t know if it’s a team thing or an individual thing, but I don’t think everyone has the mentality to come out strong like we need to.’

The numbers show the Orange has been a different team in the second half, but Johnson said it wasn’t just the halftime break that made a difference. She said the team responds well when SU head coach Quentin Hillsman motivates them during the game.

While Hillsman’s mid-game speeches can provide a spark, Johnson said the team needs to start motivating itself to succeed rather than just relying on the coach.

‘When Coach Q gets in our face and yells at us to play hard that’s when we get our momentum and our energy,’ she said. ‘We need to come out here every game and play hard the first two or three minutes and not look to Coach to yell for us to play hard.’

Junior forward Fantasia Goodwin didn’t have an explanation for the team’s poor starts. She thought the Orange needs to turn its strong second halves into complete games to start winning.

‘I’m not sure what it is about the team that we come out better in the second half,’ Goodwin said. ‘We just have to play hard for 40 minutes.’

The team has a tendency to stray from the strategy in the first half, Hillsman said. When the players have a chance to catch their breath at halftime, they are able to get back on track.

‘We are able to get back in the locker room and make some adjustments,’ Hillsman said. ‘I think the halftime helps getting them refocused and gets them back on task with the game plan.’

Hillsman, though, has been impressed with his team’s ability to respond to adversity. The Orange battled back from deficits against good teams like Pittsburgh and South Florida to keep both games close. Syracuse was unable to fully overcome the poor beginning to those games.

Said Hillsman: ‘I guess I get a little more pissed off about it because I’m like ‘wow if we had done this well from the tap, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Published on January 30, 2007 at 12:00 pm