Alexis Peterson flew up the court on a breakaway and found her way to the basket, drawing contact against Coppin State’s Keena Samuels before rising and dropping in a layup. Peterson thought she had earned herself an opportunity for a traditional three-point play. Instead, the nearby referee whistled for a charge.

Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman, who expressed frustration with the officials throughout the night, turned away from the play and paced quickly toward the end of SU’s bench. He didn’t stop until nearly walking off the court.

When Hillsman turned around, Peterson was standing at halfcourt, staring at him and holding up three fingers, one for each foul she had. With 3:09 remaining in the first half, Hillsman was forced to remove Peterson from the game.

“I didn’t want her to get that fourth foul in case the game got tight down the stretch,” Hillsman said.

After a red-hot start to Wednesday night’s game, Peterson cooled off once she found herself in foul trouble. She played only 25 minutes, nine fewer than her season average, during Syracuse’s (6-2) 88-56 win over Coppin State (2-6) in the Carrier Dome.

Peterson scored five points in the game’s first four minutes, first connecting on a runner in the lane and then draining a 3 from the left corner to put the Orange ahead 8-6. By the 7:15 mark of the second quarter, she had registered 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting.

“That’s a great floor game,” Hillsman said. “I thought she played tremendous.”

But Peterson committed her first foul with just over seven minutes to play in the first half. Two minutes later, she bumped Samuels as she attempted a 3 from the left wing.

When a referee called Peterson for that foul, Hillsman shook his head before subbing Peterson out. She re-entered the game 13 seconds before picking up the third foul and leaving again.

In the game’s 27 minutes that followed Peterson’s initial foul, she scored just five more points, finishing 6-of-8 from the field with 15 points to go along with five assists.

At one point on defense in the fourth quarter, she made a move to try intercepting a pass before choosing to back off and avoid contact. She then raised her arms in the air to signal that she didn’t commit a foul.

“(The foul trouble) did kind of bring me back a little bit,” Peterson said.

To avoid Peterson falling deeper into foul trouble, Hillsman subbed her out of the game five different times in the latter three quarters. He “probably” could have used her more, he said, but credited strong bench play — Syracuse had 50 points — for making it easier to rotate the guards.

Peterson said coming in and out of the game affected her rhythm, but added that she did what she could to “stay mentally ready” and not think too much about her fouls.

Said Peterson: “You can’t take them home, so you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

Published on December 9, 2015 at 10:43 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu