It was halftime and Syracuse was winning. But for the first time all season, it had little to do with the play of Brittney Sykes and Brianna Butler.

SU’s two leading scorers were held without a single point in the first 20 minutes, but nine points from La’Shay Taft helped weather the storm until the Orange’s superstars stepped up in the second half of Syracuse’s (22-8, 10-6 Atlantic Coast) 63-53 win over Clemson (13-19, 4-12) in the second round of the ACC tournament Thursday morning.

“It was just a matter of just staying confident and knowing that the shots that I usually make were rimming out, and I know I could make those shots,” Sykes said. “It was keeping confidence and staying out of my own head.”

Sykes and Butler entered the game averaging a combined 32.1 points per game, but missed shots and untimely fouls plagued the stat sheet in the first half. Butler misfired on a 3 just 10 seconds into the game, and did so again three possessions later.

Sykes missed a jumper just two minutes in, committed a turnover two possessions later, then committed a foul after giving it up. The game had just begun, but things weren’t looking good.

“I told them they were awful. I really did,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “I said if our two best players play awful, we’re going to lose the basketball game.”

But while Sykes and Butler were awful, it was Taft that filled the void. With SU down a point six minutes into the game, Taft connected on 3-pointers on two straight attempts, the second of which was a contested shot several feet behind the 3-point line.

“Pretty much everyone was just telling me to come off the bench with some energy. And I did,” Taft told the ACC Network following the game. “Bri always encourages me, we encourage one another. I made shots, and that’s what happened.”

In the second half, though, it was back to business for Butler and Sykes. Butler connected on a 3-pointer from the right wing to give Syracuse a 33-29 lead just 1:41 into the second frame.

With nine minutes left and Syracuse up seven, Sykes got the ball on the right wing, and drove to the basket, dusting the Clemson defenders as they attempted to close out on her.

It was her first made basket of the game, but she was just getting started.

With 6:47 left she nailed a jumper, and after getting the ball back on the next possession scored on an and-one layup. She missed the free throw, but Butler was wide open on the putback lay-in. It gave Syracuse its largest lead of the game at 13 points.

Sykes and Butler combined for 19 of Syracuse’s 33 second-half points, as the Orange wouldn’t let the lead slip to fewer than nine the rest of the way.

“I didn’t care how we got it,” Hillsman said. “I just wanted to get it. And I thought going into this game, we thought about balance. I thought we had a ton of balance. When you look down our stat lines, everyone played and everyone contributed to this win.”

Syracuse returns to the court for a quarterfinal matchup with No. 14 North Carolina State on Friday at 11 a.m.

On Jan. 5, in the first-ever ACC conference game for SU, the Orange blew a nine-point lead midway through the second half, as the then-unranked Wolfpack escaped with the home win.

“We lost at N.C. State the first time,” Butler told the ACC network. “So it’s another game for us to go and show people what you’re made of.”

Published on March 6, 2014 at 3:43 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3