No. 11 Syracuse (4-2) lost a close game against No. 8 Ohio State (5-1), 77-72, on Saturday night in Estero, Florida, as part of the Gulf Coast Showcase. The loss sets SU up for a matchup with DePaul on Sunday at 5 p.m.

A 3-pointer by Alexis Peterson tied the game up at 72 with 40 seconds left. But she missed another attempt to tie the contest with SU down three and seven seconds to go in the eventual loss.

“Petey got a real clean look at the 3 and just came up short,” head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “Our kids fought really, really hard and played at a high level.”

The first quarter ended 18-18, and the score was deadlocked at 27 about halfway through the second quarter. But then OSU started pulling away, outscoring the Orange 17-7 to take a 10-point lead into the break.

Coming out of the break, though, SU shot right back. An SU run that started with the Buckeyes up 12 made it a one-possession game. Then, Syracuse tied it.

In the fourth quarter, with under four minutes to go, OSU took a seven-point lead. But the Orange still clawed back, going on a 10-3 run punctuated by the Peterson 3-pointer to tie the game at 72. Peterson had eight of the 10 points.

She finished the game with 29 points on 11-of-22 shooting. The rest of the team combined to shoot 26.5 percent. Brittney Sykes chipped in 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.

In past seasons and earlier this year, Hillsman said he has more than five starters on the team, referencing a bench he felt comfortable deploying. But today only one bench player — Bria Day — played more than six minutes.

“We were just in a good flow,” Hillsman said. “We were rolling with the kids that had the momentum, we just stayed with them.”

Published on November 26, 2016 at 10:36 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer