HARTFORD, Conn. — It took Seton Hall head coach Phyllis Mangina all of 20 seconds to bring up Carmen Tyson-Thomas’ name.

In her opening statement following Syracuse’s 65-42 win over the Pirates Friday, Mangina mentioned the Syracuse freshman before anyone else. Before a single player from her own team. Before SU’s leading scorer Erica Morrow (18 points), or its vocal leader, Juanita Ward. Even before the All-Big East senior Tyson-Thomas replaced in the starting lineup — leading scorer Nicole Michael.

‘Tyson-Thomas is unbelievable on the offensive glass,’ Mangina said. ‘I thought what really, really hurt us was her offensive board play.’

For the Pirates and their head coach, Friday’s outcome was determined in simple terms. If the Pirates were going to have any chance of beating the same SU team they lost to by 41 on Jan. 5 they needed to perform on the boards. That was the plan. Ultimately though, the SU freshman, more than anyone else, foiled that plan.

With Michael unavailable as a result of a nagging injury to her right foot, Tyson-Thomas was called upon to start in her place. Though the versatile guard/forward scored only two points on the night, she reeled in a game-high 13 rebounds — 8 offensive — in SU’s 65-42 opening round win in the first round of the Big East women’s basketball tournament Friday.

Tyson-Thomas was not made available to the media following the game.

‘Carmen is awesome,’ SU senior Juanita Ward said. ‘Carmen has it all. She is a good player, and she can do it all, basically.’

Over the course of those 20 seconds, Mangina talked exclusively about the fact that in order for Seton Hall to upset the Orange, it needed to rebound well. By the end of the game, the Pirates failed in that department. SU edged the Pirates on the board, 58 to 35.

From the opening tip, just minutes after SU head coach Quentin Hillsman opted to go with Tyson-Thomas in the starting lineup, the Philadelphia native dominated the glass. By halftime, the she had tallied seven rebounds, five of which came on the offensive glass.

But she struggled throughout the game as well. As the Orange scurried into the XL Center’s locker room at halftime down 28-27, Tyson-Thomas had zero points. In 13 minutes the guard was 0-6 from the field. The performance was a long cry from the nearly 16 points Michael regularly supplied the Orange from that wing spot.

The majority of those misses came as easy baskets from the inside as Tyson-Thomas seemingly attempted shot after shot after securing her own rebounds.

‘On our end we were missing a bunch of chippies inside,’ Morrow said. ‘Just going away from our gameplan. At halftime coach talked to us, we settled down got playing and we got it done.’

At times Friday, Tyson-Thomas and the rest of the Orange seemed to be fighting each other for rebounds.

At other times, Tyson-Thomas appeared to be the only one capable of grabbing a board. By the stretch run of the second half, Tyson Thomas registered her tenth rebound. It came with 16:29 remaining in the game with SU clinging to a 33-32 lead.

Tyson-Thomas would remain scoreless for 12 more minutes, though.

And that first basket, fittingly enough, came following an offensive rebound. It was Tyson-Thomas’ eighth and final offensive rebound of the night.

Despite the fact that the rebound led to Tyson-Thomas’ first three points on the night, it didn’t matter. The performance was enough for Mangina.

Enough for Mangina to elaborate on that name.

Said Mangina: ‘They have some other weapons there that are pretty, pretty special too.’

aolivero@syr.edu

Published on March 5, 2010 at 12:00 pm