Kayla Alexander buried her face in a towel and sat in disbelief on the sideline.

It was a shot she’s made countless times.

But she didn’t knock it down with five seconds left in double overtime. No. 22 Syracuse (22-6, 20-5 Big East) missed out on multiple chances to win the game, falling to Villanova (19-9, 8-7) 77-75 at the Carrier Dome on Saturday afternoon in an exhilarating game that featured 19 lead changes. The Orange pulverized the Wildcats in the paint, outscoring VU 50-30, but failed to convert when it mattered the most.

“I haven’t been in a game that went back-and-forth as much as this,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “It was a tough one. I thought that when we went down the stretch we had some opportunities to win the basketball game and we just didn’t close it.”

SU turned the ball over with 11 seconds remaining in regulation, paving the way for a clutch layup with 1.8 seconds left by Devon Kane. Kane knifed her way through the SU defense and converted on a left-handed layup that knotted the game at 52.

In the first overtime, Carmen Tyson-Thomas snagged a rebound with seven seconds to go and blazed down the court with a chance to win the game for the Orange. But she lost control of the ball and it grazed the backboard as time expired and she hunched over in agony.

“In both overtimes to win the game I thought we got some easy shots that we just missed,” Hillsman said.

In the second overtime, Alexander’s two-footer was the best look imaginable for Syracuse. Elashier Hall blew by Villanova’s Laura Sweeney with seven seconds remaining, feeding the senior in perfect position.

SU’s center – who finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds and kept her team in the game – clanked the ball off the backboard, as the shot barely grazed the rim. The usually calm and unaffected Alexander let out a scream and flung her right leg in the air in frustration, dejectedly walking over to the sideline after time expired. She was stunned.

“That could have been the game right there,” Alexander said, still visibly rattled and disappointed with herself after the game. “It was frustrating.”

The aggravation mounted for Alexander and the Orange heading into the third and final overtime. After the game Hall admitted fatigue started to kick in as the game progressed.

Hall said she’s played for 40-plus minutes in practice with periodic breaks, but she’s never been part of a game with so many twists and turns.

“Third overtime? That was the last one, right?” Hall said. “I think for a lot of us we hadn’t played that long, so it was just a matter of focusing and collecting energy from somewhere – anywhere – and just getting it done.”

But Syracuse couldn’t do so. The Orange and Wildcats each flirted with a win multiple times, but neither team was able to capitalize until the third overtime when the Wildcats finally seized the momentum.

Two possessions into the third overtime, Alexander missed another easy one right around the basket – a shot that would have given the Orange the lead.

Instead, Villanova embarked on an 8-2 spurt to start the final frame, finally distancing itself from the Orange in a game in which the lead never ballooned to more than five for either team in the second half or first or second overtime periods.

After Sweeney – who punished the Orange with a career-high 29 points – nailed a jumper, Tyson-Thomas threw up a prayer and converted. Syracuse was only down two.

Two possessions later, Villanova’s Devon Kane was fouled after Rachel Coffey missed a 3-pointer from the top of the key. Kane’s free throw danced around the rim, the Orange’s hopes seesawing with every bounce. Following the third bounce, the ball plopped out. Tyson-Thomas snatched the rebound and rifled an outlet pass to Coffey with four seconds to go.

Syracuse had one last chance. Despite its late-game struggles and missed opportunities, the Orange still had to a shot to earn a massive win and remain perfect at the Carrier Dome.

Coffey heaved it up toward the rim with just her right hand from two feet beyond the arc. The shot was perfectly aimed, but came up just a tad short, clanging off the rim. Bending over to the ground, Coffey looked physically wounded by the miss for a few seconds.

“I was just thinking like man, if that had went in that could have been the game,” Tyson-Thomas said. “Sometimes it falls, sometimes it doesn’t. Unfortunately this was one of the times that it didn’t.”

Published on March 2, 2013 at 8:46 pm

Contact Trevor: tbhass@syr.edu | @TrevorHass