HARTFORD, Conn. — Phil Seymore didn’t hesitate in sending Quentin Hillsman a text message late Friday night. Leading up to his Friars game against Syracuse, the Providence head coach wanted to discuss with his good friend, the recent play of Syracuse guard Erica Morrow.

After a handful of games where Morrow looked to score more than she had towards the beginning of the year, Seymore wanted to remind the Orange head coach that this was the Morrow he was familiar with. Not the Morrow who played in SU’s loss to the Friars earlier in the season.

‘I actually texted Q (Hillsman) last night and told him that he had taken the reigns off of her,’ Seymore said. ‘Because earlier in the year she really wasn’t shooting the ball as much, she was more just running the offense. And the last, I think, four or five games, he has let her loose, and she has been shooting a lot.’

Consider the reigns removed.

Saturday, Morrow continued that streak of aggressive play Seymore talked about in Syracuse’s 76-71 win over Providence in the second round of the Big East tournament. The Morrow that showed up towards the latter half of conference play was there again in front of 8,924 fans at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn. The junior led all scorers with 24 points in 39 minutes of action.

The victory propels SU (22-9, 9-9 Big East) into the quarterfinal round, where it will take on No. 1 Connecticut at 2 p.m., Sunday. The Huskies will be looking to tie their own NCAA record by attempting to win their 70th consecutive game. The win also keeps the Orange’s NCAA Tournament hopes alive, as a loss to the Friars would have likely secured SU a spot in the WNIT.

The notion that Morrow has picked up her offensive game towards the later half of the year is nothing new to Hillsman. All year the coach has been telling his star player to always look to score.

That mentality was present more than ever Saturday. Throughout the first half there was a constant dialogue between coach and player after every one of Morrow’s shots. Whether it was a make or a miss, Hillsman always said something. And more often than not, it was one word — ‘Easy’.

‘That is exactly what it was,’ Hillsman said after the game. ‘I wanted her to remain aggressive and not worry about misses because one thing I know about her is that once she turns the corner she demands attention,’ Hillsman said. ‘Then when she demands attention, we can rebound with numbers on the backside.’

For Hillsman, Morrow and the rest of the Orange that gameplan worked perfectly as SU out-rebounded the Friars (16-14, 7-10 Big East) 45-39. The Orange also collected 17 offensive rebounds in the game.

Morrow herself corralled some of those rebounds. The guard was in the midst of every scrum Sunday, as Morrow was pitted against the Friars star All-Big East-player in Chelsea Marandola throughout the game.

One of those rebounds came with 2:38 remaining as Morrow jetted from her spot at the top of SU’s 2-3 zone to haul in a board. Seconds later Morrow looked back to make sure she didn’t step out of bounds, before continuing up the court against Marandola.

‘Whatever the team needs me to do I’m going to do,’ Morrow said. ‘Whether it is handling the ball or shot the ball, or get rebounds I’m going to do whatever it takes for my team to win.’

The rebound came in the middle of a 9-4 SU run that effectively won the game for the Orange. Down the stretch the crowd at the XL Center began to get behind Providence. It became a pseudo-home game for the Friars. But the crowd turned out to be a non-issue for Syracuse. They did have the privilege of Morrow carrying them down the stretch.

The guard iced the game with four consecutive free throws to give SU its first double-digit lead of the night at 76-66 with 56 seconds remaining. The free throws increased Morrow’s total to 9-12 from the line from the night, as she also went 7-18 from the field.

Thanks to the late free throws, the game was in check. But even with that, Hillsman refused to let up on his star guard.

After Morrow committed a foul with 11 seconds left Hillsman let Morrow hear it. It was a dumb foul to commit while nursing a late lead, and Hillsman got that point across to Morrow by yelling, ‘Erica!’ and pointing up to the clock.

It may have been a different one word from before, but the message was clear. With SU fighting for its NCAA Tournament life, it needs 100 percent of Erica Morrow for all 40 minutes of the game.

And Syracuse craves that unflinching Morrow-mentality to boot.

‘I wasn’t getting too worried about the shots she was making or missing,’ Hillsman said ‘I didn’t know, she didn’t know. The only thing we addressed was for her to stay aggressive.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on March 6, 2010 at 12:00 pm