Rick Moody called it an anomaly. The 2-for-19 shooting performance by Syracuse’s three starting guards against Cincinnati was simply abysmal.

‘Sometimes those things just happen,’ Moody, an SU assistant coach, said. ‘It’s an anomaly. Our three guards just had a tough time shooting the basketball.’

But despite the horrific numbers from its perimeter players, Syracuse defeated the Bearcats on the road. As has become the trend, the Orange offense was dragged along by its interior players.

Tuesday’s 55-53 escape from Fifth Third Arena was the fourth straight conference win for Syracuse (20-7, 8-6 Big East). It was also the fourth straight rocky performance by SU’s trio of guards. The Orange takes on Providence (12-14, 5-9) Saturday in SUs home game of the season. A win will guarantee SU finishes the regular season above .500 in conference play, but in order to ensure success going forward the guard group consisting of Tasha Harris, Erica Morrow and Elashier Hall needs to put together a complete game.

The recent slump by Syracuse’s guards provides Providence with a simple defensive game plan, Moody said. With the shooters playing as poorly as they have recently — especially in their nine-point collective effort against the Bearcats — there is no reason for the Friars not to pack the paint defensively.

‘I’m sure Providence has seen that game, and they’re going to try to force us to shoot the ball on the perimeter,’ Moody said. ‘They would almost be foolish not to, based on the numbers of the last few games that we’ve won.’

In SU’s last four games all Orange victories Morrow is the only one of the three guards to score more than 10 points. She scored 17 points against Louisville on Feb. 16. Hall hit 10 points once, and Harris hasn’t gone over eight.

As a result, opposing teams can compact their defense. That gives Syracuse interior players like Kayla Alexander and Iasia Hemingway less room to maneuver. True enough, the Orange hasn’t stumbled in its past four games. But eventually, that luck could run out.

Morrow says it’s time for her and her fellow guards to alleviate some of the pressure that the interior players face to score night in and night out.

‘We were getting opportunities, and as guards we weren’t knocking our shots down,’ Morrow said. ‘It’s our job to take that pressure off the bigs. We were constantly feeding the ball inside, and they kicked the ball back out to us because the team was sagging down on them.’

A logjam inside the 3-point line limits Syracuse’s ability to play a two-man game with Hemingway and Alexander. All season long, Syracuse’s main offense runs through Hemingway catching the ball at the free-throw line. From there, she looks to either drive to the hoop or dump the ball down low to Alexander.

But if a defense has no need to respect the SU shooters, then it has no need to extend. Like Cincinnati, the Friars will likely pack their defense in as much as possible until Morrow and Co. prove they can make shots.

So while Moody says the primary role of the guards is to get the ball inside, that doesn’t mean the team can survive without any production from the perimeter. The guards need to make shots going forward against the Friars and into the Big East tournament in order to keep opposing defenses honest.

‘If we can make a couple shots and get the defense spread out a little bit, I think it will help us to get the number of points we need to win the game,’ he said.

And against a Providence team that only averages 57 points per game this season, Moody may have selected the right words when he said ‘a couple.’ The coaching staff isn’t expecting double-figure games from all of them every night. It just isn’t expecting another 2-for-19 performance either.

‘We tried to put up shots that normally went in, but they just weren’t going in,’ Hall said of the game at Cincinnati.

Though that might be true, it can’t continue to be the trend. After Providence comes a date with No. 1 Connecticut. And against the likes of Maya Moore, Tiffany Hayes and Bria Hartley, 10.5 percent shooting doesn’t cut it.

‘Iasia and Kayla have been playing very well together in the two-man game,’ Morrow said. ‘I think right now they’re the center of our offense. … So if us guards can make a few shots to help them out a little bit, it will definitely open up a lot.’

mjcohe02@syr.edu

 

Published on February 24, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13