Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman turned around to the players on the bench, and began yelling, “Let’s go,” repeatedly. One-by-one he plucked five players off the bench to head to the scorer’s table to check-in, even though it was only a minute and a half into the game and Howard had only scored two points.

“It’s probably something where we looked awful or we didn’t have enough energy,” starting guard Brittney Sykes said.

Hillsman had a short leash for his players Wednesday night, he said, and as a result, him turning to the bench to send a new player into the game became a more common sight than anything else in the Carrier Dome. He made 65 substitutions — more than Howard had points (48), more than the Orange had baskets (34) and more than there are minutes in a game (40).

Reserve freshman guard Abby Grant posted a career-high in minutes, Maggie Morrison scored a career-high 14 points and Sykes spent the least amount of time on the court she has all season by 10 minutes. The Orange (9-3) took advantage of nearly everyone on its bench and cruised to a 97-48 dismantling of Howard (2-12, 1-1 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference).

“Everybody who touched the ball and got in the game made a difference in the game,” Sykes said. “… Everybody did something positive in the game.”

Syracuse’s starters opened the game with three misses in their minute and a half of play. After a 1-for-17 shooting start against Drexel the day before Hillsman said, “I wasn’t doing that again,” and yanked every player off the floor.

When forward Isabella Slim pulled her arms back as a potential rebound bounced in front of her, Hillsman yelled out, “Grab the damn ball,” took Slim out and reiterated his point as she took her seat on the bench.

When Sykes threw a pass over the outstretched arms of forward Julia Chandler, Hillsman crumpled up the piece of paper in his hands and put Sykes back on the bench.

Prior to the game, Hillsman told his players they had to crash the boards and protect the basketball or they would get pulled.

“Some of us may not have believed him, but he actually did it,” guard Cornelia Fondren said.

The head coach said it’s easy to get sloppy in a game where the score gets out of hand and the extreme frequency of subs kept his players disciplined. The Orange finished with 14 turnovers — one less than its average.

When one player was taken out a new one came in and picked up the slack. The constant carousel didn’t disrupt the team’s flow, Fondren said.

Grant made her first basket in almost a month, guard Danielle Minot played in just her second game all year and 10 different Orange players registered double-digit minutes.

“I thought that we played everyone a lot of minutes,” Hillsman said. “I was just trying to keep the floor balanced.”

With five minutes left in the game, Sykes walked over to associate athletic trainer Karen McKinney and said, “This is great, I just needed this one game to rest.” She only had to play seven minutes as a plethora of other players took her place on the floor.

Hillsman doesn’t know the last time he made 65 substitutions in a game or the last time he even counted, joking that he probably made 67 on the night.

But in its second game in two days, Syracuse was able to save its players’ legs, keep them disciplined and get freshmen minutes they likely won’t see when conference play starts on Sunday.

“I wanted us to finish the game strong, finish the game smart and I thought our players did a very good job,” Hillsman said.

Published on December 30, 2015 at 11:20 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus