Before Syracuse took the court to play Kentucky, Quentin Hillsman told his team to not be satisfied with what it had already accomplished.

The Orange had every reason to be. It had won the first NCAA tournament win in program history two days prior. It was playing without Brittney Sykes, the team’s leading scorer. It was on the road against a team that lost just eight games all season.

The Orange could have just packed it in.

“We wanted to stay close, wanted to make it a great game,” SU point guard Alexis Peterson said. “We knew if we could stay within a two-to-four range that we had a chance of winning. We wanted to give ourselves an opportunity to win the basketball game.”

And even when it kept feeling like Kentucky would put the game out of reach in front of a raucous, sold-out, Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky., the Orange found a way to claw back.

In the end, though, it was untimely turnovers and poor 3-point shooting that prevented No. 6-seed Syracuse (23-10, 10-6 Atlantic Coast) from getting over the hump in a 64-59 loss to the No. 3-seed Wildcats (26-8, 10-6 Southeastern) in the Round of 32 on Monday.

“That’s what good teams do. That’s what veteran teams do,” Hillsman said of Kentucky. “They stayed poised when you’re making a run at them. Every time we made a run, got it to six, got it to eight, they made a play.”

Sykes watched from the sideline, a brace on her knee and crutches next to her chair. She spent the entire game barking out advice and encouragement, coaching her teammates when they came back to the bench.

“Right before Coach came in to talk to us, she sat us all down and said she’s really going to miss us, and she’s going to be here for us emotionally,” SU guard Brianna Butler said. “She understood how much she meant to us.”

Her presence was sorely missed. La’Shay Taft started in her place and struggled mightily, scoring just three points on 1-of-8 shooting.

As a whole, Syracuse shot just 5-of-25 from 3, but it seemed that whenever the Kentucky ballooned, an SU 3 would splash through the net.

Butler — who scored a team-high 15 points — halted an 8-0 run early on to cut the lead to 12-9. She hit another late in the first half to cut UK’s lead to seven.

But each time it got close, the shots stopped falling.

“We got to a point where I thought we could turn the corner,” Hillsman said. “You’re playing this great team, and every time you think you turned a corner, they got a steal, they got a leak-out, got a huge 3, offensive rebound.”

Syracuse slowed down a team that averaged more than 82 points per game. But the Orange struggled in its half-court sets, giving up 23 turnovers, its second highest total of the season.

But SU was able to hang around with some strong defense of its own. The Orange forced the Wildcats to cough the ball up 15 times.

Rachel Coffey poked the ball away as Kentucky brought it upcourt. She swooped in for a layup plus the foul. She missed the free throw, but Syracuse corralled the rebound and Coffey hit an open 3.

A seven-point lead shrunk to two.

“I think the 3 that Rachel hit for us really showed that we could do this thing and really take this lead,” Butler said. “And I think it increased our intensity and made us go even harder. It was a pivotal moment for us.”

But the missed 3s and the turnovers continued to pile up, and Syracuse couldn’t grab the lead.

Hillsman said he woke up at 6 a.m. Monday feeling a win. He woke up with the same feeling on the day before.

And even though the final score couldn’t validate his confidence, the way his team competed did.

“We have a young team that really plays hard,” Hillsman said. “I’m really pleased with their effort this year. They’re just a great group of kids and they put up with me, so that’s tough. But they really just get after it, and they compete.

“I love ‘em to death.”

Published on March 24, 2014 at 11:23 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3