Quentin Hillsman didn’t want to show his hand too early. Against the 1-2-1-1 press of Eastern Michigan, Hillsman looked on in disgust as his Syracuse squad committed 13 first-half turnovers.

But somewhere amidst the countless poor passes and head-scratching decisions by his players, the SU head coach recognized the adjustment that needed to be made in his team’s press break. And though the Orange was struggling, it maintained a slim lead over the Eagles. So Hillsman waited and hoped.

‘It was just a really simple adjustment that during the first half, once I recognized it, I didn’t want to show it in the first half,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want them to go in there at the half and make (their own) adjustment to it. I was hoping that we could hold on.’

Syracuse did hold on and took a two-point lead into halftime, 34-32. The necessary change was relayed from Hillsman to his players, and it worked wonders in the second half. The Orange turned the ball over only six times in the final 20 minutes and held off a pesky Eastern Michigan team to earn a 72-63 win in the Carrier Dome.

The press the Eagles used to trouble the Orange was a variation of a scheme that Syracuse exploited just a few weeks ago in the Big East tournament. Though SU ultimately lost to Georgetown on March 5, it handled the 1-2-2 pressure from the Hoyas with ease through the first half.

Hillsman said that Eagles head coach AnnMarie Gilbert really did her homework on the Syracuse press break. She dropped one of the players in the back line of her defense behind the other to create the 1-2-1-1 alignment that caused problems for SU. Tasha Harris and Erica Morrow, the two major ball handlers for the Orange, combined for six turnovers to just five points in the first half.

‘They made a good adjustment coming into this game,’ Hillsman said. ‘She must have got our tape and saw how we ran our press break. She stepped her person (in the middle) back some.

‘She dropped hers back, so in the second half we stepped ours up.’

For Syracuse, that player was Iasia Hemingway. In the second half she set lined up one step into the SU backcourt to help the guards. Though it was only a difference of a few feet, Hemingway said it was a big difference.

The wing players in the Eastern Michigan press were forced to pinch inside on Hemingway, meaning as soon as she caught the ball the sides of the court were open. She would kick it wide to either Harris or Elashier Hall, and they would scamper across half court.

‘It was like one step behind the halfcourt line,’ Hemingway said. ‘It was crazy how big of a difference it was.’

With the adjustment in place, the turnovers disappeared. No longer could the quick, agile Eagles guards get hands in the passing lanes and bolt the other way. The 19 fast break points and 19 points off turnovers compiled by the visitors seemed to come all in the game’s first 20-25 minutes.

‘I think our speed certainly helped us in the first half,’ Gilbert said. ‘While our players were fresh, I think our speed really disrupted them tremendously.’

From the start, Syracuse’s guards were anything but fresh. Both Harris and Morrow are dealing with injury problems, and, according to Hillsman, are simply ‘willing themselves through games’ at this point of the season.

And that’s why the press break became so important. Once the guards for SU got the ball over half court, they didn’t have to do much else. Hemingway and center Kayla Alexander Syracuse’s two interior players combined for 45 of the 72 points.

The trio of Hall, Harris and Morrow simply had to break the press and dump the ball inside. The bigs for Syracuse did the rest.

As the clock wound down and the Orange went on a 10-2 run to close the game, Gilbert’s guards had nothing left. The relentless pressure that hounded Syracuse early on lost its aggressiveness. Too much energy had been spent, and Eastern Michigan simply couldn’t keep up.

Said Gilbert: ‘It was almost like we were literally out of gas at the end of the game.’

Mjcohe02@syr.edu

Published on March 24, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13