Quentin Hillsman stresses the importance of clean basketball.

But through the first four minutes of Monday’s game, his Syracuse team did not show him clean basketball.

“I just told them to clean it up,” the SU head coach said, “and for the shooters to get some floor space, get some balance, and get our lanes wide in transition and spread the floor and make some plays.”

The opening minutes of SU and Cornell’s matchup at the Carrier Dome on Monday afternoon featured sloppiness at its finest. A 35-second span in the early going saw seven turnovers. Travels, awry passes that bounced out of bounds and turnovers galore led to an ugly first few minutes.

But the Orange straightened up its act. Seven and a half minutes into the game, Syracuse (3-0) tightened up its defense, which translated to fruitful opportunities on the offensive end. The end result was an 18-0 Syracuse run, which at its conclusion positioned the Orange at a 32-10 advantage with 7:42 remaining in the first half.

The rest was merely a formality in SU’s 89-48 victory over the Big Red (2-1) before a Carrier Dome crowd of 199 fans.

“We definitely picked up our defensive intensity,” SU guard Brianna Butler said. “I think that we were able to pressure the ball, force turnovers, get Cornell to play out of their element and with them doing that, we were able to push the ball and get open baskets in transition.”

But before the Orange’s perimeter defense clamped down on Cornell’s shooters, Hillsman was not pleased on the SU bench.

Center Shakeya Leary was whistled for three seconds in the paint on the Orange’s fifth possession. Guard Brittney Sykes flew from coast to coast for a layup at the rim, but missed from point-blank range. Guard Rachel Coffey came up with a steal, but threw it right back to Cornell.

Amid the early turnover madness, Hillsman watched the Big Red connect on two 3s and a pair of long two-pointers in the matchup’s first four minutes.

“It’s just about knowing who’s in your area,” he said. “I think that at times we didn’t do a very good job at getting our defense set.”

As his team, down 7-6, walked back to the bench for a media timeout, he looked at his players with his palms facing up, wondering when they would snap out of it.

He received his answer pretty soon.

Out of the timeout, the Orange exploded. The 6-foot-3 Leary stepped way out of the paint to block a shot at the perimeter. On the other end, a nifty feed from Taylor Ford to Leary put Syracuse ahead 8-7, and the onslaught was on.

Four points from Sykes extended the lead to five points. Then Butler hit a turnaround jumper and after a Cornell 3, she responded with a spot-up 3. In the blink of an eye, the Orange had built a 25-10 lead by the 9:39 mark. By the end of the 18-0 run, SU led by 22 with less than eight minutes left.

Meanwhile, the Big Red continued to stumble against Syracuse’s lock-down defense.

Instead of turning on the aggressive full-court press that smothered Dartmouth on Thursday, Syracuse had a different defensive game plan prepared for Cornell — a team that shot 41.9 percent from downtown going into Monday’s game.

“Different teams have different pressure points,” Sykes said. “They pass the ball really well. We wanted to get them across half court and then invite them for the trap.”

The Orange’s defensive effort centralized on the half-court set more than a full-court press, and Cornell still had its problems deciphering both. To counter the Big Red’s ability to pass its way through a full-court press, Syracuse planted half-court traps — which led to steals and opportunities in transition, where SU scored 27 fast-break points.

When it was all said and done, Cornell turned the ball over 29 times and lost by 41.

The cleaner brand of basketball prevailed.

“Easy baskets. Getting out in transition,” Hillsman said. “We got some points off turnovers and were able to play at the rim. I thought that was the most important thing for us today.”

Published on November 19, 2013 at 2:42 am

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb