Gabby Cooper set up in the right corner behind the 3-point line. Syracuse had won the tip and was running its first possession of the season. Eight seconds in, she caught the ball and fired it in.

In the next two minutes, it was Brittney Sykes who get in on the action. Her first one came just to the left of the top of the key. She stared it down as it went in and held up three fingers with each of her hands above her head.

A minute later, she spotted up in the right corner and drained another. This time, she put a 3-point symbol to her mouth and made a shushing gesture.

“It’s just about taking what we have,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “… It was just hard to throw the ball inside … and it allowed us to get some open looks and we took ‘em.”

After losing four key players, including Brianna Butler, the active leader in 3s made last year, there were questions about how SU would make up the 3-pointers. On Friday, No. 14 Syracuse (1-0) answered those questions emphatically by making a program record 17 3-pointers in a 95-49 victory over Rhode Island (0-1) in the Carrier Dome.

Last year’s matchup was a close one that ended in a narrow three-point, come-from-behind victory on the road. On Friday, the Orange had one spurt in the second quarter in which the game was within single digits before pulling away.

SU started off hot in the first quarter, making six out of 11 3-pointers. The spot-ups from the half court sets came early, but the shots were also there in transition, such as when Sykes grabbed a rebound over multiple defenders, pushed the ball up court and found an open Isabella Slim from the left wing.

Things slowed down for Syracuse later on. After scoring 25 in the first quarter, the team scored just 11 in the second and made only two field goals. Both were 3-pointers.

Six different SU players hit at least two 3-pointers. Midway through the fourth quarter, the Orange made its 15 3-pointer, which was the program’s single-game high.

“They didn’t really get a lot of 3s off the press,” Rhode Island head coach Daynia La-Force said. “They got a lot of them off second-chance points and in transition.”

To that end, Alexis Peterson — who led the team with 28 point and five made 3s — said it’s something the team had been working on a lot in practice.

“We’re taught to look ahead and skip one more,” Peterson said. “… It’s second nature.”

More than half of the Orange’s shot attempts, and makes, were 3-pointers. And in a game in which the Rams stuck around for a little longer than expected, each one put URI a little further out of reach.

In the fourth quarter, Peterson made a 3 right in front of the Syracuse bench, turned to her teammates and smiled. Meanwhile, the Orange had forced a turnover, gotten the ball back to Cooper and made another three to reach 15, the program record for a single game — just halfway through the fourth quarter.

With most of the bench on the floor after that, it appeared SU would be stuck at 15. But Jade Phillips made two 3s in the last minute of the game to reach the new program record. The Orange bench exploded — some players held up 3-point symbols, others waved towels and Sykes did Drake’s dance from the “Hotline Bling” music video.

Hillsman wants his teams to shoot a lot of 3s. Even this year with new faces taking them, and familiar faces taking a lot more.

“We just want to take good shots,” Hillsman said. “And if that means taking 45 3s then we got to get them up and make sure that they’re good ones.”

Published on November 11, 2016 at 5:31 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer