With about 1:40 left and Syracuse up 69-65, Marquette had the ball out of a SU timeout with a chance to turn it into a one-possession game. Angel Robinson, who already had 10 points, pulled up for a jumper. The shot missed, but a Golden Eagles player was standing under the hoop, primed to snag the offensive rebound and put it back in.

But Fantasia Goodwin, Syracuse’s leading rebounder with 9.8 per game, managed to put a hand on the ball from behind and literally rip it from her opponent’s hands, preventing what would have likely been an easy layup.

It was an easy-to-miss play that happened in a split-second, but Quentin Hillsman didn’t miss it. After the game Sunday afternoon, the Syracuse head coach knew exactly what moment he thought eventually determined the outcome of the contest.

‘I thought that was the deciding factor of the game, that she flat out took the ball from the kid, and she just made sure we had the rebound,’ Hillsman said.

Goodwin grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds, none bigger than that one in the game’s final two minutes, in No. 23 Syracuse’s 70-67 victory over Marquette on Sunday, bouncing back nicely from last weekend’s disappointing loss to Georgetown.

Though Hillsman singled out one particular rebound by Goodwin, it wasn’t the only key rebound for the Orange. Syracuse completely controlled the glass all day, particularly in the second half when Marquette came back from a deficit as large as 14 points to retake the lead late in the game.

Besides Goodwin’s 14, forward Chandrea Jones contributed nine, and forward Nicole Michael added eight.

Overall, the Orange out-rebounded the Golden Eagles, 48-34, and 16-11 in the battle of offensive boards. But most importantly was Syracuse’s performance in the second half, when it tallied 25 boards to Marquette’s 18.

‘I thought it was big late,’ Hillsman said. ‘I would like to see how many rebounds we got in the last four-five minutes. I thought that was the difference in the game, our rebounding down the stretch. I thought we were really big on the glass, and we didn’t give them too many second opportunities down the stretch.’

To answer Hillsman’s question, Syracuse out-rebounded its opponent, 9-4 in the final 3:40 of the second half. Three of the Orange’s boards came on the offensive end, leading to four SU points on free throws. During that stretch, Marquette collected just one offensive board – a last-ditch effort by forward Svetlana Kovalenko with four seconds remaining and Syracuse up by three.

It was also during that stretch when Goodwin most made her presence felt. At the 3:40 mark and Syracuse down one, Goodwin snagged an offensive rebound off a wild shot by Jones and drew a foul. She hit 1-of-2 to tie the game. And, of course, Goodwin produced the key play at the 1:43 mark that Hillsman talked about.

In the last four minutes, Goodwin grabbed four of Syracuse’s nine rebounds and blocked a shot.

‘We got scorers on the team, my thing is rebounding,’ Goodwin said. ‘My coach always tells me to go out there and rebound, and we knew how important this game was, so I can put my team in the position to score.’

Perhaps not surprisingly, Marquette managed to score two points during that time frame. Every possession, the Golden Eagles had one shot, usually a contested one, and then had to fall back on defense because someone like Goodwin or forward Vionca Murray was there to outlet Syracuse to the offensive end.

In a sloppy game that featured 47 combined turnovers and relatively poor shooting by both teams, the game came down to the grunt work in the paint. On Sunday, it seemed like Goodwin wanted the ball a little more than anyone else, especially when it counted most.

‘I wanted it more than she did, evidently,’ Goodwin said, ‘I got it, I wanted it, I fought for it, so that’s what I did. That’s what I do: rebound.’

jediamon@syr.edu

Published on February 10, 2008 at 12:00 pm