Quentin Hillsman boarded the bus to the airport Monday wearing a smile. The smile may have stemmed from the fact that he should have his ‘sparkplug’ ready by the time he lands in Louisville.

Hillsman learned Monday that sophomore guard Erica Morrow will be able to play in Syracuse’s game against No. 6 Louisville (20-2, 13-1 Big East) Tuesday. This comes a day after Hillsman was told by team doctors that Morrow’s return against the Cardinals was likely but not certain.

Morrow missed Syracuse’s previous game, a 69-51 loss to Villanova Saturday, with a chest contusion sustained in SU’s 66-55 win against Marquette on Jan. 27.

‘We went to see yesterday morning and to see how she was feeling and found there was a possibility,’ Hillsman said. ‘We found out this morning it was (confirmed) by a doctor’s decision. …She’s cleared, she’s ready to go.’

In the team’s first game without Morrow starting, the Orange suffered its second-biggest loss of the season to a Villanova team that took advantage of the gap in SU’s lineup by blasting its backcourt with 16 3-pointers.

Morrow’s replacement, sophomore Marisa Gobuty, only scored seven points, almost 10 points below Morrow’s season average of 16.9 points per game.

‘She’s a great player on the court, so she was a big loss,’ junior forward Nicole Michael said following the game Saturday. ‘She is a great factor, and we definitely needed her points today.’

But for Michael, Morrow’s absence wasn’t about numbers. It was about motivation. Morrow provides the team with a steady dose of assuredness. She’s a desperately needed source for a team teetering on relevance in an already crowded Big East field heading into the final nine-game stretch of the season.

‘Erica never gives up,’ Michael said. ‘She’s very strong and the young kids feed off of that so they know we’re not giving up – she’s just the most confident person ever.’

Confidence could prove to be a key factor for the Orange, as it heads into its third matchup against a Top 25 team in just two weeks. Louisville is led by Angel McCoughtry, the nation’s seventh-leading scorer at 22.5 points per game.

‘They’re very good at getting Angel McCoughtry the ball,’ Hillsman said. She’s one of the best players in the country. When she’s in your area you’ve got to honor her, I mean you have to limit her catches and we’re going to do a lot of things to keep her from touching it, and when she does catch it we’re going to make sure we’re there.’

Hillsman plans to stop McCoughtry though a mixture of his defense he used against Connecticut’s Maya Moore, which involved an emphasis on pass defense, and if it fails a straight up double team. He’s hoping for better results than the 40 points Moore scored against his defense on Jan. 17, when the Orange lost to the Huskies by 54.

The coach could not say how Morrow would factor into this Louisville-specific defense, although he said he would like to keep her to a particular amount of minutes while letting Gobuty step in for as much as 13 to 14 minutes to give Morrow some rest.

‘I think she plays better when she gets in that range,’ Hillsman said. ‘You start getting into that 35 to 36 minute range, and it takes its toll on the body especially in February. We gotta try and keep her minutes manageable but still win basketball games.’

Regardless of the personnel on the floor for the Orange Tuesday, one thing is for certain:

SU has to beat Louisville on the offensive end of the floor. The Cardinals are ranked ninth in the country in scoring margin, winning by an average of 18.4 points per game.

Whether it’s Morrow providing the spark, or Michael and senior guard Chandrea Jones playing above their averages, slowing down McCoughtry and the up-tempo attack is crucial to clinching a much-needed victory.

‘We know its going to be a challenge,’ Jones said Monday. ‘But we just have to make shots.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on February 2, 2009 at 12:00 pm