Searching for its first marquee win of the season, Syracuse waited until perhaps the most dire time of the season to finally find it.

Hitting its final stretch of the season, the Orange (17-11, 6-8 Big East) went on the road to Chicago and handily defeated No. 21 DePaul (20-8, 8-6 Big East) 81-65 Tuesday night with a balanced offensive attack and a stingy defensive performance. SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said after the game that while his offense spread the floor to create open looks to the basket, Syracuse’s defense zoned in on the Blue Demons’ shooters to limit their opportunities.

‘I thought we just did a very good job making shots,’ Hillsman said. ‘We had the floor spread out, and I thought that when we had opportunities to take open shots, we did. That was a huge part of us scoring the basketball, we got the floor spread. And defensively, we did a very good job of recognizing and locating their shooters.’

Syracuse received a huge boost from guards Rachel Coffey and Carmen Tyson-Thomas, giving it another offensive boon aside from its high-low game plan. Coffey, who drained six 3-pointers, finished with a career-high 22 points, while Tyson-Thomas equaled her point total of 22 and also added a career-high 15 rebounds. Center Kayla Alexander provided another stellar offensive output in the low post with 17 points.

As a team, SU finished 26-of-64 from the field for 40.6 percent. The Blue Demons, one of the best shooting teams in the Big East, finished just 38.5 percent from the field.

‘I thought us moving the ball and getting the ball reversed was the biggest thing in our offense today,’ Hillsman said.

Even more surprising was that DePaul, considered to be deadly from the perimeter, only managed to sink 6-of-30 3-point attempts.

The Orange and Blue Demons traded points for most of the first half and at the start of the second. But with more than 17 minutes remaining in the game, Syracuse caught fire and went on a 23-0 run that spanned nearly eight minutes, shifting momentum and all but sealing the win for the Orange.

Alexander provided seven of those 23 points, while Coffey and Tyson-Thomas each added six. SU’s lead ballooned to 64-43, and DePaul never got closer than 12 points the rest of the game.

Hillsman said the decisive stretch resulted from SU’s ability to find Alexander in the low post.

‘We were able to attack the paint,’ Hillsman said. ‘… It wasn’t about getting a lot of shots. It was about offense rebounding and getting in the paint.’

Syracuse outrebounded DePaul 44-37, with 21 of those boards coming on the offensive glass.

The Orange didn’t even hold its first lead of the game until nearly nine minutes into the first half after DePaul took an early 13-8 lead.

The signature victory comes on the heels of Syracuse’s 79-63 win over Marquette on Saturday. After that game, Hillsman emphasized the importance of winning out the rest of the season, and he reiterated that point Tuesday night.

‘It was huge. Obviously, we need to string some together,’ Hillsman said. ‘Winning on the road is really big, and a ranked opponent on the road, that’s huge for us. Obviously, the girls deserve a lot of credit. They played really hard. They really bought into our game plan.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

—Asst. Copy Editor Andrew Tredinnick contributed reporting to this article.

 

Published on February 21, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman