Almost as soon as they sat down, they stood back up.

Less than a minute into Syracuse’s 93-55 victory over Wagner Wednesday, Carmen Tyson-Thomas, Elashier Hall, Kayla Alexander, Tyler Ash and Lynnae Lampkins all dashed toward the scorer’s table to check in.

The ‘second five’ were entering the game 49 seconds after it began. It was almost a mulligan from head coach Quentin Hillsman, as he sent in a new five for the starting five — a pseudo-restart to the game.

The ability to put in a solid second unit is a luxury Hillsman and the rest of the squad has cherished thus far this season. To Hillsman it’s almost like having two starting fives.

The Orange (7-0) will look to use its two lineups to its advantage this Sunday in its first true road game of the season against Ohio (2-3), at 2 p.m. in Athens, Ohio.

‘Like we always say, ‘From top to bottom, we can put so many different starting rotations out there,” starting guard Erica Morrow said. ‘We don’t really think about it as starters and our second group coming in. Just as quick as I can start, Elashier can start in my spot. They push us a lot in practice, and we push them back.’

This past week in practice, Hillsman said the second group has been playing especially well. After the victory over Wagner, Hillsman jokingly alluded to that fact in his postgame press conference. In his mind, putting them in mere seconds into the game was a plain decision — they did regularly edge the starters in scrimmages during practice all week.

‘Early we didn’t get out, and that’s why I subbed the whole five out,’ Hillsman said. ‘So we put the second group in, who was winning every scrimmage in practice this week anyways. They pretty much took the lead for us.’

‘Coach took the first five out, and put the second five in and they played great defense,’ starting forward Nicole Michael said. ‘And I guess we saw off of the bench. When we got on the court we just picked it up.’

Through seven games, all five have averaged at least 12 minutes per game. The units lead guard, Lampkins, is the sole player to average less than 16 points a game. Together Hall, Alexander, Tyson-Thomas and Ash are averaging 17.1 minutes a game.

In contrast, SU’s five starters – Morrow, Michael, Vionca Murray, Tasha Harris and Juanita Ward – are only averaging five more minutes a game, at 22.4.

‘When you can get Slinky (Michael) 15 minutes and Erica 17 minutes, and get them off of the floor, and Vionca getting her off of the floor, I thought that was very important for us,’ Hillsman said following Wednesdays game. ‘Tyler Ash was very good in the post for us today, so we got some things accomplished today that I know we need to get accomplished to win basketball games.’

On Wednesday the three premiere freshmen on the team, Hall, Alexander and Tyson-Thomas, shined. Hall and Tyson-Thomas led the team in rebounding with nine apiece.

But Alexander was the real story, as she has been all year, leading the team in scoring with 23 points in only 19 minutes. The effort was good enough for a career high.

‘It was great to see those three freshmen on the floor because you know they have a bright future,’ Hillsman said.

The standout play of the second squad, which is comprised of those three freshman and two sophomores (Ash and Lampkins), perhaps could entice Hillsman into changing the starting lineup. The most obvious move being to put Alexander into the first five.

Murray and crew can rest assured, however. Hillsman isn’t going to fix something that isn’t broken, as evidenced by the programs best start in 12 years. He’s happy with his two lineups. After the Wagner game, he made that clear.

He’s not switching it up anytime soon.

Said Hillsman: ‘No. Same lineup.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on December 2, 2009 at 12:00 pm