Desiree Elmore charged at Raven Fox and bumped shoulders. Both of them screamed.

Moments earlier, Fox crept toward the Syracuse basket and waited. Tiana Mangakahia, driving the lane as she had done all night, beat her defender and baited Fox’s. The point guard flicked the ball to a wide-open Fox, who finished the layup with her right hand and triggered the celebration.

Fox came face-to-face with Elmore, flexed and tilted her head to the ceiling and yelled along with a roaring Carrier Dome crowd.

The layup knotted the score at 65 with two minutes remaining. It was crunch time and Fox was a bench player who averaged just over three points a game, but it didn’t matter. The bucket was part of 24 bench points that Syracuse (19-7, 7-6 Atlantic Coast) needed every drip of to topple No. 17 Duke (20-7, 9-5), 68-65, in the Carrier Dome for its second win against a ranked opponent.

Earlier this season, Hillsman said he wanted to have 10 players with double-digit minutes. He predicted production from all throughout the lineup. Aside from its usual five starters, the Orange have primarily relied on two bench players to fill out its rotation: Fox and guard Isis Young. On Thursday night, the two bench players — who on average combine for 9.4 points a game — scored 24 (Fox with 8, Young with a season-high 16) and brought SU above .500 in conference play.

“You want to get some productivity off the bench,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “I thought that in this game, you talk about getting 24 points off the bench, that’s huge.”

Young said she may have had a “shooter’s touch” entering the contest after a good pregame shootaround. She also said that SU’s strategy was to shoot corner 3s and exploit Duke’s 2-3 zone defense. With the Blue Devils holding a five-point lead in the first quarter, Young displayed the touch and executed the game plan.

The redshirt-junior caught the ball across from the Duke bench and swished a 3. Two possessions later, Mangakahia slipped a pass through two defenders and fed Young in the same spot. The ball barely touched the net on the way in.

“Isis is a really good shooter,” Hillsman said. “She got some really good looks tonight. She has some deep range and when she gets going she’s a handful to guard. … Tonight, she definitely makes you pay.”

In the second quarter, SU now up a possession, Young dribbled around a screen, took one step toward the net, and drilled another deep ball. She then hoisted a deep ball a few feet from the arc and gave the Orange its largest lead of the game.

Syracuse’s then-eight-point lead came when Lexie Brown, Duke’s best player, sat the bench with three fouls. Joanne P. McCallie, the Blue Devils head coach, noted that SU’s bench was “great” while injuries handicapped Duke’s depth. The visitors finished with seven points to SU’s 24.

The Orange faced its own rotation problems in the third quarter when Digna Strautmane recorded her fourth foul. Finklea-Guity subbed on for the forward, but in the fourth quarter SU’s lone center tired and was replaced by a 5-foot-8 Fox.

“It’s great,” Mangakahia said of Fox’s production, “sometimes she doesn’t play that much. But when she’s in, every little thing matters to her. She definitely stepped up and made those tough shots.”

Two of Fox’s four buckets came in the fourth. One was the game-tying shot, and another was a layup earlier in SU’s game-ending 14-2 run. On that shot, Mangakahia looped a pass over-the-top of the defense and found Fox, who had been patrolling the baseline. After her biggest shot of the game, Fox lept in the air, tipped the ball outside and earned Syracuse another possession.

“They came in,” Hillsman said, “Raven came in and played great. Isis did a good job of making shots and doing things they needed to do to win the basketball game.”

After Duke’s Leaonna Odom clanked the game’s last 3, clinching SU’s victory, Fox sprinted towards the bench and jumped into Strautmane’s arms. The little things paid off, and the upset was complete.

Published on February 15, 2018 at 11:08 pm

Contact Nick: nialvare@syr.edu | @nick_a_alvarez