Alexis Peterson pumped her fist and yelled as she ran up the court. Her field goal, sandwiched between a jumper a minute before and a buzzer-beater 46 seconds later busted Syracuse out of an early slump and gave it a one-point lead going into halftime.

For a stretch of 8:20 in the first half, the Orange went without a field goal, but it was the sophomore that hit a jumper to end the drought and SU’s shooting woes.

“It was me trying to motivate myself and bring some energy to the team,” Peterson said of her fist pump. “I think we got a couple defensive stops and that helped us out offensively, and we kind of took it uphill from there.”

Peterson finished with a game-high and career-high 19 points. She was 8-of-13 from the field on a day when No. 24 Syracuse (1-0) shot 33 percent from the field without her. But the Orange still beat Fordham (0-2), 59-42, in its season opener in the Carrier Dome on Sunday.

After falling behind late in the first half, Peterson scored the last six points before the break and continued her hot shooting in the second to lead the Orange further and further ahead of the Rams.

“We want to be able to attack in transition and get up and down the floor,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said, “and I think Petey did a really good job getting us into our transition offense.”

Hillsman said the 5-for-27 shooting start felt like 5-of-227. He told his team at halftime that he didn’t know how to correct the mistakes because they had done everything wrong in the first 20 minutes.

After SU guard Brianna Butler banked a driving layup with 15:31 left in the first half, Syracuse missed ten shots and committed five turnovers before scoring again. Forward Taylor Ford, who had scored SU’s first five points, took three 3s from the left wing and all of them clanked off the back rim.

Hillsman wasn’t sure if it was early-season rust or tired legs, but in the early going his team wasn’t following the score, press, steal blueprint that’s become a staple of Hillsman’s game plan.

“It was our first game, we came out a little frazzled,” said Butler, who finished shooting 2-of-9 from the field. “We were out there going hard and we were just playing faster than we usually do. And in the second half, Coach told us you just have to make shots … And we came in the second half and slowed down and made the shots that we usually make.”

That second half surge was led by Peterson. She stole a pass just 18 seconds into the stanza, drew a foul and connected on both free throws. Seven minutes later she nailed a pull-up jumper. A minute later, she hit back-to-back shots to put Syracuse up 10.

Last season, Peterson showed flashes of the player that seemed all-but complete on Sunday. Hillsman said she was the most talked-about point guard that played the least minutes. Every press conference he’d say, “Just wait and see.”

“It was really exciting,” Peterson said on Sunday. “We were all ready to play, we were all in it. I was just glad I could step up and help my teammates out.”

Published on November 16, 2014 at 3:34 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3