As the final minutes ticked off another disappointing loss, Quentin Hillsman squatted next to the Syracuse bench. Other than calling out defensive plays, he was silent, unlike his usual flamboyant nature as head coach.

When Iasia Hemingway was called for a travel, he smiled and covered his face with his hand, shaking his head in frustration. Syracuse’s head coach was disappointed at an opportunity left at the wayside Tuesday.

His team had a lead on a Top 10 opponent. Had the momentum, too. And he knew SU let it slip away.

‘This is a very disappointing loss,’ Hillsman said. ‘This hurts. This hurts as much as any loss I’ve had since I’ve been here.’

After falling behind by nine in the opening minutes, Syracuse came storming back on a valiant comeback to take a lead over DePaul. But that comeback was short-lived, as DePaul squeaked out a four-point lead by halftime and ran away from the Orange in the second half, winning 77-61. Syracuse’s 12-0 run after falling behind 20-11 early couldn’t be sustained, and SU suffered its third straight loss.

And Hillsman knew after the game that it was as important a loss as any. With SU — which has missed the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons — on the bubble once again, the fifth-year head coach knew it was a win his team could use.

‘I don’t believe that we’re an NIT team every year,’ Hillsman said. ‘I don’t think we have those kinds of players on our team. I’m a fighter, and I’m not going to settle for just every year being a spectacle and then being OK.’

Syracuse’s slow start lasted eight minutes before the Orange found a rhythm. It was around the same time Hemingway, a usual starter, entered the game. Hillsman said the junior was benched for sleeping in and missing practice Monday, but when she came on the court, she was active. Hemingway and backup forward Shakeya Leary spurred the Orange’s run, combining for nine of the 12 points during the spurt.

As Syracuse went into a media timeout up 21-20, Hillsman stormed onto the court to greet them, yelling, ‘Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!’ Leary said the team was excited to get in the huddle after taking its first lead since 2-0.

But the Orange never reached that level of excitement again.

‘When you see them start to cut the lead, cut the lead, and then you’re down at four at halftime,’ SU guard Carmen Tyson-Thomas said, ‘you go into halftime thinking you know you have it.

‘But when you come out, you don’t have a quick start like you need to, it’s really disappointing.’

DePaul head coach Doug Bruno said he felt like the 3-pointer his team made with 31 seconds left before halftime swung the momentum toward his team, as the Blue Demons led 39-35 at the break. That momentum never switched back to SU in the second half, and the four-point lead only grew.

Bruno said it was a big win for his team over a good Syracuse team, and the Orange still has ‘a great chance’ to make the NCAA Tournament.

But Syracuse has work to do. Hillsman said he always talks about reaching 10 Big East wins, through a combination of regular-season and Big East tournament wins. The Orange only has four right now, with six regular-season games left.

‘I feel like we got to go on the road and take one, like they took one from us,’ Hemingway said. ‘Everybody’s got to get 10 times better than what we do when we’re home.’

Hillsman took this loss to DePaul harder than most losses, he said. His postgame statement, reflecting on both the disappointment of the loss and his belief that the Syracuse program should be better than it looked Tuesday, lasted nearly five minutes.

He said the only thing left is for his team to show the fight he talked about in its final six games.

‘It’s my responsibility as the coach of this program to put us in the NCAA Tournament every year,’ he said. ‘And I think that for what we get and the resources that are available to us and the support we have … we’re going to turn the corner.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on February 8, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr