Taylor Emery caught the ball in corner, right in front of Virginia Tech’s bench, and eyed the rim. A 41-percent 3-point shooter, she had connected twice on six attempts from behind the arc and pondered a seventh try when Digna Strautmane made the decision for her. SU’s forward charged Emery with her hand jutted in the air, trying to contest the soon-to-be jumper. Emery noticed, pulled the ball down and dashed towards the rim and laid in an uncontested layup.

Crouched in front of the scorer’s table was SU head coach Quentin Hillsman. When he saw the ball kiss off the glass and drop in, he got up, adjusted his belt and looked off in the distance. The damn had broke. The Orange deficit was now eight with 1:38 left in the fourth quarter.

“We gotta get stops,” Hillsman said. “You can’t trade baskets when you’re down. We had players driving straight to the basket and (we weren’t) stopping (the ball). We can’t give people breakaway straight line-drives to the rim.”

SU crawled its way back from a multi-possession deficit in the fourth quarter with multiple contested jumpers. Time and again, the Hokies answered back with a layup like Emery’s. The unfocused interior defense cost Syracuse (17-6, 5-5 Atlantic Coast) late in its 73-64 loss to Virginia Tech (15-8, 4-6). The defeat marked the first time in 12 games that the Orange lost in the Carrier Dome, dating back to last season.

“They spread us out and did a really good job of attacking our zone,” Hillsman said. “We got messed up off the bounce. … We were running full speed at non-shooters and then they drive by you and hit and-1s. That’s about scheme and that’s about making sure we know our personnel.”

Defenders were quick to charge at shooters because of Virginia Tech’s 3-point barrage in the third quarter. Virginia Tech had shot 3-12 from distance in the first half and out of the break, found open shooters along the top of SU’s 2-3 zone. Four of the visitors’ six field goals in the third quarter were from distance. With SU conscious of the long ball, it pressed higher.

The tactic worked and Virginia Tech went 0-for-4 in the final frame from 3. Indirectly, the adjustment also created new holes in the middle of the defense which the Hokies capitalized on. Virginia Tech recorded eight field goals in the fourth and all but one of the makes were layups. Each one a body-blow to SU’s comeback efforts and silenced the 1,416 in attendance.

“I thought we had a good prep going into this game,” Hillsman said, “but, obviously it wasn’t good enough. … We gotta do a better job of getting our defense loaded. Getting our defense set.”

Hillsman said that SU usually does a better job of “loading” the ball, or focusing more defenders on the ball-handler. Ideally, if a guard gets free on the perimeter, a big slides down and contests a shot. However, on Thursday night, Hillsman called his defense “odd” and guards were met with no resistance once they beat the one white jersey in front of them.

Syracuse’s lack of help defense also led to more offensive rebounds for the Hokies. Guards Isis Young and Tiana Mangakahia both cited the team’s defensive rebounding as its Achilles’ heel in crunch time.

Virginia Tech tallied five of its 18 offensive rebounds in the fourth, which subsequently led to eight more points. Hillsman was quick to say that the loss and poor defensive focus was his fault alone. Yet, his players disagreed after the game.

“That’s all (on) us,” Young said. “There is no scheme to that.”

The loss drops Syracuse to eighth in the ACC with fourth-ranked Louisville traveling to the Dome this Sunday. SU has had a problem closing out games all season, Hillsman has indicated that the little things, like help defense and rebounding, has held his team back.

Tonight, though, was different. Syracuse’s problems had been isolated to road woes but they were front and center on Thursday night, and SU is sent back to the drawing board.

Published on February 1, 2018 at 10:50 pm

Contact Nick: nialvare@syr.edu | @nick_a_alvarez