Gabrielle Cooper yelled and clapped her hands toward the SU bench. After the Orange put themselves up by 29, Cooper’s outstretched arms forced a Princeton throwaway and another chance to push ahead. A day prior, Syracuse needed runs to recover from bouts with inefficiency. Friday, Syracuse never slowed.

Syracuse (5-1) dominated Princeton (1-5), 92-61, in its second game of the Cancun Challenge. The Orange’s hot-shooting helped its cruise to the program’s highest point total since last season’s 95-68 domination of Niagara in the season-opener. Four SU players finished in double-figures led by Gabrielle Cooper, who had a season-high 20 points on 7-11 shooting in the game.

“We got some clean, stand-still 3’s,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said to SU Athletics after the game. “That’s what we’re trying to get.”

After a game when Syracuse tallied 21 turnovers that slowed its offensive production, Syracuse turned the ball over 20 times against the Tigers, including a team-high seven from freshman forward Emily Engstler. But the turnovers seemingly had little effect on SU, who forced 11 turnovers of its own and dominated Princeton in transition. Tiana Mangakahia, who said she has worked on limiting her turnovers from a season ago, didn’t turn the ball over once.

Syracuse was dominant early and often in the game. Late in the first quarter, the Orange flashed its two-guard lineup that SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said after Syracuse’s season-opening win over North Dakota that the Orange would turn to often. It led to quick drives and strong pushes up the court. SU pushed the pace, and Princeton couldn’t keep up. In the first quarter, Mangakahia flew by hardly any defense for a lay-in to make it a 19-point lead.

Though the Tigers kept themselves in the game briefly with timely makes from beyond the arc, Syracuse’s well-rounded play pushed its lead further. SU shot 54 percent from 3-point range in the first half and once again was steadied by Cooper, who made three of her four shots from distance. On the inside, the Orange play allowed Syracuse to keep firing from distance as it kept a grasp of the rebounding game and cleaned up SU’s misses.

“We got a lot of pieces at the basket that really allowed us to kick it out and shoot 3’s,” Hillsman said.

With 1:13 remaining in the first quarter, a Princeton offensive player drove in on Mangakahia, who held her hands straight up and held her ground, but she was called for her second foul, forcing her to take a seat on the bench and forcing SU to abandon its powerful two-point guard attack. So, Kiara Lewis led the Orange offense.

On one play, Lewis drove into the right block and put the ball through her legs and spun to the outside before she layed the ball into the hoop. A few plays later, she picked up her dribble at the top of the key and, when the defender sagged off her, she rose up and fired a 3-pointer that put SU up by 18 points. She went 3-3 in the first half playing in relief of Mangakahia and was a perfect 4-4 overall, finishing with 10 points.

Cooper continued her barrage from beyond the arc in the second half as SU guards led the scoring charge. When Cooper was guarded out the top, she went inside and scored a lay-in on her only attempt from inside the 3-point arc.

The Orange lost Kadiatou Sissoko to an injury in the first quarter after she tweaked her knee attempting a trap on an SU press. When the Princeton player cut, Sissoko made a quick twitch to her left and immediately took pressure off her right knee, hopped to the floor and lay flat on her face as SU officials tended to her. She stayed on the ground for two minutes before being carried off the court by SU assistants Adneyei Amadou and Cedric Solace and was seen with an ice pack on her right knee.

Hillsman said Sissoko was “moving well” and putting pressure on her knee after the game. When asked if she would play in Saturday’s game against DePaul, Hillsman said “don’t know and probably not.”

“It was that kind of injury where probably you want to get her home and get her checked out before we start playing her,” Hillsman said.

Syracuse is back in action again 1:30 p.m. Saturday against DePaul in the finale of the Cancun Challenge.

Published on November 23, 2018 at 3:43 pm

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary