With the game already in hand, Cornelia Fondren pressed up against Jacksonville forward Briona Brown as she dribbled the ball past half court.

Fondren extended her arms out wide to play defense as Brown froze. She tried passing to her right, but Fondren’s left hand nicked the ball away and set off a foot race. The Syracuse guard swooped up the ball off the ground to notch her fifth steal of the game and was fouled before reaching the basket.

She sank both free throws to extend the Orange’s lead to 65-44 with under two minutes to play, and recorded the last of SU’s 15 steals against the Dolphins.

Syracuse (7-3) beat Jacksonville (6-6), 65-49, and reestablished its aggressive defensive style to generate more offense on Monday night in the Carrier Dome. The Orange was hamstrung in its last game, scoring a season-low 54 points against Arizona State and recording just six points off fast breaks.

Because of plays like Fondren’s near the end of the game, SU caused 26 turnovers and scored 14 of its points on fast breaks. Fondren led the Orange in steals, but Brittney Sykes, Briana Day and Julia Chandler all recorded multiple takeaways.

Going into Monday’s game, SU led the Atlantic Coast Conference with an average of 13 steals per game through nine contests this season.

But Syracuse leaned on the long ball to initially build up a cushion on the scoreboard. All five of SU’s shots from behind the arc swished through the net in the first quarter, including all three of Brianna Butler’s tries.

The Orange’s perimeter-heavy offense only netted six 3s against the Sun Devils nine days prior.

Senior guard Maggie Morrison kept SU’s hot streak going by sinking an open 3 to start the second quarter and draw out her team’s lead to 24-11. It kicked off a 7-0 Syracuse run that kept the Dolphins from scoring for nearly seven minutes leaking back to the first quarter.

The Orange entered halftime with a 16-point lead, and scored its first basket of the second half when Briana Day weaved between Kimberly Dawkins and Christin Mercer en route to an and-one layup.

Sykes shouldered much of Syracuse’s offense and defensive load in the second half, and finished the night with 10 points and 11 rebounds to record her first double-double of the year.
On an inbound play midway through the third quarter, Sykes caught her defender off guard and stood flat-footed before leaping high up to tap in Alex Peterson’s lob pass toward the 5-foot-9 guard.

They ran the same play again in the fourth quarter, but Brandi Buie fouled Sykes on her way up so she wasn’t able to cleanly grab the ball. Sykes sank 1-of-2 free throws before driving to the basket on SU’s ensuing possession to stretch the lead out to 20.

Sykes and the Orange never relented, leading the entirety of the 40-minute contest and burying the “funeral” mood felt by head coach Quentin Hillsman after his team’s worst loss of the season against Arizona State.

Published on December 21, 2015 at 10:05 pm

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman