Marchele Campbell and Tracy Harbut never found their way off the Syracuse women’s basketball team’s bench Saturday afternoon in a 75-60 loss to No. 23 Virginia Tech at Manley Field House.

The two Orangewomen officially returned from their 10-game suspension for violating team academic policy, but neither saw action.

Both players were not made available to comment to The Daily Orange.

Campbell and Harbut dressed for the game and warmed up like they had been doing while serving their suspensions. But once the game started, it was as if they were still suspended, as neither player even took off her warm-ups.

In fact, only one reserve played the entire game. Junior Krystalyn Ellerbe subbed five minutes for point guard Julie McBride while SU’s four other starters played all 40 minutes.

‘It’s no different than trying to get Jill (Norton) or Krystalyn in,’ Syracuse head coach Keith Cieplicki said. ‘I’m trying to just do the best that I can in terms of watching the players each day and giving our team the best chance to win.’

Campbell and Harbut’s suspensions started prior to SU’s Dec. 30 game against Colorado. On Thursday, Cieplicki announced that the two would be eligible to play Saturday.

Campbell has seen action in six games this year, starting one of those games. She’s averaging 3.7 points and 13.3 minutes. She scored a career-high 12 points at George Washington on Dec. 4. Harbut is averaging 1.1 points in seven contests.

Cieplicki said it will be up to the players and their effort in practice as to whether or not they’ll see action in games.

‘They’ve got to do the job in practice and prove to the coaches that they can help us be successful,’ Cieplicki said. ‘I don’t think there’s any sense playing anybody if we don’t believe in our hearts that we’re going to gain an advantage by playing them.’

Too tall

Virginia Tech outrebounded Syracuse, 43-29, Saturday. The Hokies also pulled down 14 offensive rebounds, leading to an 11-4 advantage on second-chance points.

Hokies 6-foot-4 senior Ieva Kublina recorded six of those offensive boards en route to her third double-double of the season. Kublina scored a game-high 23 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and blocked five shots.

Virginia Tech, with four starters and five bench players standing taller than 6 feet, made the most of its height advantage over Syracuse.

‘It’s been important for us all year,’ Virginia Tech head coach Bonnie Henrickson said of Tech’s height. ‘But there are times that we haven’t used it. Like we said, we’re big and might scare you going through an airport, but there have been games where we haven’t used our size.’

Syracuse, though, is all too familiar with its rebounding plight. After watching another opponent dominate them on the glass, the Orangewomen are searching for answers.

They’re not content to watch teams repeatedly get second and third chances on offense when, if they could just rebound better, their team defense would be stronger.

‘That’s just something we need to really work on,’ McBride said. ‘Be more physical in just going to get the ball. I think that really hurt us a lot because we played really good defense up until that point.’

Shooting blanks

A look at the stat sheet revealed a 17-point, seven-assist and five-rebound effort for McBride. But her field-goal percentage of 30 percent left a lot to be desired as she continues to struggle at home.

McBride was 6-for-20 on 2-point attempts and 2-for-7 from 3-point range against Virginia Tech. Fifteen of her 17 points, though, came in the second half after she missed all eight shots she took in the first half.

Dating back to SU’s Jan. 5 home loss to Yale, when McBride was 0-for-8 on field goal attempts and 0-for-7 on 3-pointers, the senior’s field-goal percentage is a paltry 28.9 percent at home. –

When asked if she felt there was any reason why she was struggling with her outside shooting, particularly at home, McBride laughed a little bit and then questioned back.

‘If you have an answer, tell me,’ she said. ‘Because I don’t.’

This and That

Syracuse junior forward Sarah Wegrzynowicz netted a career-high three 3-pointers. … Rochelle Coleman’s four 3-pointers pushed her over 100 for her career. She’s the fifth SU player to eclipse the century mark for 3-pointers made. … SU head coach Keith Cieplicki dressed sharply for the Hokies. His maroon-colored shirt was a perfect color match of the Hokies’ uniforms. … Cieplicki also found a new seat during the game. Known for walking around and yelling out assignments up and down the sideline, Cieplicki finally took a seat with about a minute and a half remaining. The strange part, though, was that Cieplicki ignored the chairs on the bench and sat right down on the wooden floor with his feet dangling out toward the playing court.

Published on February 1, 2004 at 12:00 pm