Quentin Hillsman tells his players before every game that their goal is to get 20 offensive rebounds. When he told them on Thursday before Syracuse’s home game against Clemson, it was a mark the Orange had yet to reach in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

But that changed against the Tigers.

The SU head coach watched as his team snagged 23 offensive boards against Clemson. In the first half, when the Tigers couldn’t miss from the field, it offset their hot shooting and kept Syracuse in the game. It laid the foundation for a strong second half, and propelled the Orange to an 84-75 win in front of 342 fans at the Carrier Dome.

“For us to complete that goal was big,” Brittney Sykes said. “But it’s also big for us because if we’re going to take a lot of shots we have to crash the boards, and get those easy putbacks, those easy two points, or pass it out for a 3.”

In the first half, Syracuse (14-5, 3-3 ACC) outrebounded Clemson (9-11, 1-5) 13-1 on the offensive glass. But even with the dominance on the boards, the Orange still trailed 45-42 at halftime. Clemson was shooting the lights out, going 18-for-27 in the first half — a stretch that included five straight makes on 3-point shots. Syracuse countered with only 14-of-36 from the field, but maintained possession on nearly every missed shot.

It was the theme from the get-go.

On SU’s first scoring play, Sykes had the ball stripped, but it landed in the hands of Brianna Butler, who misfired on a 3 from the right wing. Shakeya Leary grabbed the rebound, but her attempt didn’t fall. Isabella Slim corralled the miss and dumped it off to Sykes who, finally, made the short jumper from deep in the paint.

“It was huge because we got some second opportunities.” Hillsman said. “We just put ourselves in position to maintain contact.”

Eight of the first 10 Syracuse points came on the offensive glass. With SU down 11-6, Taylor Ford grabbed a weak-side rebound that skidded off the back of the rim after a shot from Leary. Ford stood virtually unguarded with the ball in her hands, and laid it in easily.

The effort didn’t stop in the second half. Ford cleaned up a missed layup from Sykes, and immediately threw the shot up while absorbing contact. After the foul was called she flashed a massive grin to the pumped-up Syracuse bench adjacent to the basket.

“I do whatever I can to make my team win,” Said Ford, who pulled in a career-high eight offensive rebounds. “So if I have to crash the boards to get rebounds, that’s what I’m going to do every game. It’s a natural thing for me.”

Ford and Leary combined for 15 of SU’s 23 overall offensive rebounds, and 9-of-13 in the first half. They kept the team in the opening stanza with 18 total points.

Hillsman said that he didn’t do anything special for this game. He didn’t think of any masterful plays or ways to dominate the glass. He said it was a result of effort.

And when everything else was going wrong for Syracuse, it was that effort that salvaged an otherwise poor first-half performance.

“You’re talking about just going to the glass,” Hillsman said. “Like I said, there wasn’t any scheme. I told them, ‘We just got to go get the ball. Ball’s on the glass, we all got to crash. We can’t watch.’ We’re shooting 30 percent. There’s a lot of rebounds to get if you go (30 percent).”

Published on January 24, 2014 at 2:00 am

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3