Agnus Berenato said it came down to free throws. Her Pittsburgh team made more field goals than Syracuse, the same amount of 3-pointers as Syracuse and shot a better percentage overall.

But what the Panthers didn’t have was the SU’s ability to get to the foul line.

‘We made more shots than they did, we just didn’t make more free throws than they did,’ Berenato said. ‘We didn’t have the attempts.’

A big part of SU’s 69-60 win was its plus-21 advantage in free throw attempts. While the offense struggled to score from the field, the Panthers sent Syracuse to the line. And the Orange capitalized. One of the league’s best free-throw shooting teams took advantage of 24 Pittsburgh fouls and turned them into 20 points from the stripe.

The Orange (15-4, 3-3 Big East) hosts South Florida (10-11, 1-6) at 1 p.m. Saturday and will look to take advantage from the line once again against a poor-shooting Bulls team.

For Syracuse, getting to the free-throw line has been a major part of the team’s offense this season. Wednesday marked the eighth game this season SU has made at least 20 free throws.

‘If we got a clean catch inside,’ Hillsman said, ‘it’s just a matter of are we going to power it back up or are we going to take fall aways. And we went to the rim.’

Berenato agreed that her team’s lack of attempts resulted in the game going Syracuse’s way. Pitt kept up with the Orange from the field ? and converted on 7-of-8 free throws ? but the disparity in attempts was drastic.

‘It’s really tough to compete when you have 29 free throws to eight,’ she said.

On the season, Syracuse ranks fourth in the Big East in free-throw percentage at 71.9 percent. The Orange has attempted and made the second most free throws in the conference.

The reason, Hillsman says, is his team’s ability to hit the offensive glass. By pulling down rebounds around the rim, his players are going to get fouled when they go back up.

‘You’re going to foul some when you give up that many offensive rebounds,’ he said. ‘A lot of it was just us getting offensive rebounds and getting fouled on putbacks.’

The Orange leads the Big East and the country in rebounding margin.

Ash out for season

Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman announced Wednesday that junior guard/forward Tyler Ash will be out for the season following her second knee surgery.

Ash was seen on crutches during her team’s game against Pittsburgh, only this time favoring the other knee.

Hillsman said that Ash had her second arthroscopic surgery in the last month and a half to clean out her knees, and this second surgery will force her to miss the entire season.

‘We’re going to let her get through this season and heal up,’ he said.

Ash will receive a medical redshirt for this year, Hillsman said, and will have two years of eligibility remaining.

Last year, Ash played in all 36 games for the Orange. She made more than 40 percent of her shots from the field and averaged 4.3 points per game.

The 6-foot-2 Ash is a combination guard/forward who can play inside as well as handle the ball. Hillsman acknowledged how valuable she could have been this season but stressed that her health down the road led to the decision to redshirt.

‘We’re trying to get her back healthy, so she can come back next year and be ready to play,’ Hillsman said. ‘Obviously she would have been big for us this year, but we’re going to focus on getting her healthy. She’s still got two years to play.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu

 

Published on January 26, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13