Quentin Hillsman hasn’t shied away from talking up Erica Morrow for the entirety of this season. Over the course of 27 games, the Syracuse head coach has shared his opinion a handful of times. Morrow, he believes, is the most integral part of this year’s team.

‘She was the best player I ever recruited,’ Hillsman said following SU’s 68-65 loss to St. John’s on Jan. 27. ‘She is the best player I have on the team.’

That notion makes the situation Syracuse (19-8, 6-8 Big East) now faces heading into the final two games of the season a particularly harsh reality. Barring a miracle run in the Big East tournament, if SU is to have any remote shot at making the NCAA Tournament it is going to have to do it without its ‘best player.’

Syracuse is going to have to do it without Morrow.

After being ejected from Wednesday’s 87-66 loss to No. 1 Connecticut, Morrow will be unavailable to play in the Orange’s final road game of the year. Per NCAA rules, a player must serve an automatic one-game suspension following an ejection. Thus, the junior guard will be in dress clothes for Saturday’s 8 p.m. matchup against DePaul (18-10, 7-7) in Chicago.

Morrow has started all 27 games thus far this season for Syracuse, averaging a team-high 30.8 minutes per game — more than four minutes more than her next closest teammate, senior Nicole Michael, who stands at 26.5. The Brooklyn, N.Y., native is second on the team in scoring with 11 points per game and second on the team in assists per game with 3.7.

Against the Huskies, Morrow was tossed with 12 minutes remaining after attempting to throw a punch at UConn forward Tiffany Hayes. The incident occurred as Hayes dove to retrieve a loose ball and, in the process, butted heads with Morrow, who was on the floor. In retaliation, Morrow swung at Hayes but missed.

After several minutes of review, the referees came to the decision to remove Morrow from the game. She was not made available to the media in the postgame press conference.

‘I didn’t even see what happened,’ Hillsman said after the game. ‘I know the play was going on and they called us over to the table and they said they were reviewing a play and I said, ‘What play?’ I don’t know when the play even occurred.’

But the loss for the Orange may not prove to be most costly in the scoring department. Rather, SU will be lacking Morrow’s contributions from a point guard and leadership standpoint.

Over the course of her three-year career, Morrow has played sparingly at the point guard position. But during the latter half of the stretch run this season, Morrow has seen increased minutes at the point. Hillsman has called on her to spell starting point guard Tasha Harris as a result of an injury to Harris’ usual backup, sophomore Lynnae Lampkins.

In that loss to St. John’s earlier in the season, Morrow played extensively at point guard against the Red Storm’s press. She did the same against the full-court trap defense of UConn Wednesday night.

She had perhaps her best performance of the season at the point guard spot in SU’s 66-62 overtime loss to Cincinnati on Feb. 13. Against the Bearcats, Morrow dished out a season-high nine assists.

‘I am comfortable (at the point),’ Morrow said following the game. ‘Since I started my career at Syracuse, we have switched back and forth. Freshman year, I played a lot at the point. But in the last two years I haven’t as much.’

With two games remaining in a regular season that has quickly unraveled from the best start in program history (12-0) to what looks to be the team’s second straight appearance in the WNIT, the Orange will desperately be needing some sort of spark.

In big games this year, that spark has come from Morrow. No game proved that more than Wednesday night against the No. 1 team in the country. At the time of her ejection, Morrow was far and away the team leader in minutes, with 25 — seven more than the next highest member of the Orange — and points, with 11.

‘I really didn’t get into it because it is one of those things where she is a competitor,’ Hillsman said. ‘She plays hard and she brings it every night.’

Unfortunately for the Orange, the fire that Morrow has supplied the team with in big games will have to come from someone else against the Blue Demons.

Perhaps that spark will come from the program’s all-time leading scorer, Nicole Michael. Or it could come in the shape of the other player Hillsman has regarded as ‘the best player he has ever coached,’ Juanita Ward.

But whatever happens, Ward and the rest of the team know the grim truth is here. Time is seriously running out for Syracuse.

And part of that time has already been taken from Morrow.

Said Ward: ‘You have to continue to keep going forward. You can’t say, ‘Could’ve, should’ve, would’ve.’ Don’t look backward.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on February 27, 2010 at 12:00 pm