Miranda Drummond moved from the top of Syracuse’s 2-3 zone to the baseline, where a pass was headed to the corner. She picked it off and shuffled it to Tiana Mangakahia, who threaded a pass to Raven Fox on the other end.

Fox turned her head just in time but was off-balance. As her momentum took her out of bounds under the basket, she threw the ball back towards the court, where Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi trailed the play. In one motion, Djaldi-Tabdi gathered the ball and converted a layup, plus a foul.

Syracuse’s stood up and screamed towards the court. Digna Strautmane violently fist-pumped.

The and-1 was part of a 12-0 run to end the second quarter as No. 15 Syracuse (8-2) pulled away to eventually defeat Maryland Eastern Shore (2-6), 96-51. Following an opening period in which the Orange were outscored, SU blitzed the Hawks in the second to the tune of a 31-7 domination. The 12-0 run was coupled with a 14-2 run earlier in the quarter, as Syracuse turned a competitive contest into a blowout.

Early on, Maryland Eastern Shore looked unfazed by Syracuse, and the teams traded buckets during the first quarter. The Hawks introduced a press-breaking offensive gameplan, which gave them open looks at the hoop they often converted.

Even though the Orange had seen the strategy last season when they played Maryland Eastern Shore, they weren’t prepared to stop it.

“They really did a good job of breaking our pressure,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said, “getting on the back end of our press and get some easy shots.”

After the first quarter, Syracuse found itself trailing, 24-21, and began to use different tactics. Hillsman employed more of a matchup zone to lessen the space the Hawks had on their shots, and offensively the Orange began to attack the paint.

Center Amaya Finklea-Guity began the quarter with two free throws off an offensive rebound and on the next trip, Djaldi-Tabdi dropped in a layup. The redshirt freshman’s bucket gave SU a 25-24 lead, an advantage it never relinquished. A few minutes out of the quarter break, Syracuse figured out the Hawks’ tactics and began to exploit them.

“There’s always a part of the game when you adjust to the team,” Strautmane said. “You kind of try to get a feel of them, and then you understand what they do.”

Djaldi-Tabdi’s basket led to a 3-pointer by Drummond, who fed the ball back to Djaldi-Tabdi for a layup on the next possession. Then, a 3-pointer by Gabrielle Cooper and a layup by Mangakahia. The run drove the score to 35-26 and prompted the Hawks to call a timeout.

But the onslaught continued. Syracuse outscored Maryland Eastern Shore 17-5 to end the period following the timeout, punctuated by Djaldi-Tabdi’s and-1 and completed by a 3-pointer by Kiara Lewis.

After the three, Marie-Paule Foppossi stood up from the SU bench and raised her arms toward the top of the dome. The first quarter frustrated the Orange. The second revitalized them.

“It’s kind of just getting refocused,” Hillsman said about timeouts and quarter breaks. “We were able to get to the bench and talk about our points of emphasis, and that’s big for us.”

The Hawks somewhat recovered out of the halftime break, matching Syracuse 9-9 through the first half of the quarter. A media timeout sparked SU again though, and the Orange began another run.

From all over the floor, shots fell for the Orange but not the Hawks. SU finished the third by outscoring Maryland Eastern Shore 15-5, due in part to dominance in the paint. Offensive rebounds led to extra shots, including an and-1 layup by Finklea-Guity that brought the Orange bench to its feet yet again.

“There was definitely a big height advantage for both of us,” Finlea-Guity said about her and Djaldi-Tabdi. “So we knew that as long as we post up hard, we got shots, get rebounds…it would help us.”

Syracuse ended the third quarter with eight-straight points, but the streak didn’t end at the break. The Orange began the final period with 14 unanswered points, pushing their run to a season-high 22-straight points.

At one point during the run, Finlea-Guity flashed her post moves one last time before being subbed out. The sophomore took a pass from Chelayne Bailey in the key, catching the ball before gathering herself. She then spun on her left heel and finished a layup over her shoulder for her season-high 13th and 14th points of the night.

Cooper flexed in Finklea-Guity’s direction. The center had missed three shots in the first quarter, turned the ball over and was subbed out of the game, emotionless, less than three minutes after starting it.

Since that point, she tallied 12 points and four rebounds and missed just twice. When she was taken out of the contest for the final time, with just under six minutes left, she smiled.

“We cleaned it up,” Hillsman said. “I think that was the reason our second quarter was so big, we were able to get stops, we were able to get the ball in the basket.”

Published on December 5, 2018 at 8:41 pm

Contact Eric: erblack@syr.edu | @esblack34