Erica Morrow couldn’t budge. Clutching the ball, her team down one with 18 seconds left, she scanned the perimeter for an opening, even a glimpse of the basket. But her past had come back to haunt her.

After beating Georgetown on a last-second shot a year ago, Hoyas head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy made sure she had Morrow on lockdown this time.

‘Erica, her shot is unbelievable and it’s a quick release,’ Williams-Flournoy said. ‘We saw this last year go up into the air and into the basket. That was not going to happen again – someone else was going to have to beat us.’

Williams-Flournoy chose SU forward Nicole Michael. Her defense surrounded Morrow on the Orange’s final possession, forcing the ball to Michael, who was called for a travel while trying to force a last-second shot.

The call gave Georgetown possession and the game, while crushing an Orange team that threw everything it had at its opposition, as the Hoyas (17-10, 7-7 Big East) walked away with a 73-72 victory Sunday at the Carrier Dome in front of 863 fans.

‘Honestly, I (think I was fouled),’ a teary-eyed Michael said after the game. ‘But maybe the referee saw it a different way.’

The somber group of Syracuse players represented a mounting frustration hitting its peak. For a team that has felt the sting of last-second heartbreak several times this year, the Orange (15-11, 4-9 Big East) was simply out of ideas, out of explanations.

Winning just one of its last six games while nestling itself deeper into the pits of the Big East standings, head coach Quentin Hillsman knew this could have been a rebound game – the opportunity to catapult the team into the Big East tournament.

‘I’ve been very hard on my kids about this game,’ Hillsman said. ‘We were over-prepared for this game, I’ve never prepared harder for anything in my career.’

In the early going, it looked as though Hillsman’s game plan was panning out. Chasing his team up and down the court, the coach was ripe with emotion, practically acting out every possession from the sideline.

With 11 minutes to play in the first half, after a strong offensive rebound, guard Lynnae Lampkins drilled a 3-pointer, forcing the Hoyas to call a timeout. Hillsman stormed the floor and hugged Lampkins. The Orange was up seven.

‘We were really fired-up,’ Michael said. ‘We really wanted this game.’

But as Syracuse thrived on raw emotion generated from the sidelines, Georgetown continued to answer back. Neither team was up by more than 10, as both sides went shot for shot.

At one point in the second half, the lead changed five times in a span of three minutes.

‘It’s the normal Georgetown-Syracuse rivalry,’ Williams-Flournoy said. ‘We’ve been going at it like this for the last two years.’

Like the last two years, the result Sunday would be a toss up. This time, the Orange didn’t melt down right away. Hillsman’s game plan – an arsenal of fresh legs, working the ball around the perimeter and finding the holes – was working.

But just as Morrow destroyed Georgetown with her last-minute buzzer-beater nearly a year ago, it was out of both coaches’ – and most of the players’ – hands.

Off a turnover with 22 seconds left in the game, Georgetown guard Shanice Fuller spotted up just inside the 3-point line and buried a jump shot. The Hoyas were up one, leaving Syracuse with the opportunity to change its course and boost its team.

Hillsman tried to remain in character after the loss. The coach, who often wears his heart on his sleeve, kept the message positive. Although the Orange was down, Hillsman said the program would come around.

‘One thing I can say, which is great, back when I first started coaching, it was a situation where losing was what happened here,’ he said. ‘… All I want to do is change the culture here.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on February 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm