Just 7:32 into Syracuse’s matchup with Pittsburgh, the Orange was down nine points. SU had missed nine 3-pointers, not making a single one.

Just three minutes into the game, head coach Quentin Hillsman yanked Briana Day for sister Bria Day. Briana threw her arms up, looked at a teammate, pursed her lips and shook her head. Hillsman let her stew on the bench for four minutes, ruminating in what was turning into a lopsided affair in favor of Pittsburgh.

Within 40 seconds of returning, Briana Day set a pick for Brittney Sykes, rolled into the middle of three defenders, caught Sykes’ pass and made a layup while being pushed, earning an and-one.

Briana Day lead Syracuse (13-4, 3-1 Atlantic Coast) with 15 points and 10 rebounds on a night when the Orange lost Alexis Peterson, its most important player, less than a minute into the game. The forward helped preserve the Orange’s win after its roughest stretch in the first quarter against Pittsburgh (8-9, 0-4), scoring seven points in just more than one minute at the end of the quarter to bring SU’s deficit from nine points to four.

Eventually the Orange was able to break away from Pitt in the fourth quarter, blowing out the Panthers, 71-48.

“We started to attack the paint and play at the rim,” Hillsman said, “and I thought that was the difference in the game.”

Two possessions after her and-one bucket, Briana Day caught a pass while she was wide open and laid in an easy bucket. Then she grabbed a Sykes reverse layup that hit the bottom of the backboard on the next possession and went right back up with the shot.

Once SU got within four points, the Orange surged, scoring the next five. In all, Briana Day scored nine of her 15 points in the first quarter, helping Syracuse move pace-for-pace with Pittsburgh in a game it eventually would run away with.

Hillsman still thought she left 10 points on the board. Although the junior was an efficient 6-of-11 and was the only Orange player to shoot more than three shots and make 50 percent of them, she missed a few seemingly easy ones. But when Syracuse needed a player to keep them in the game, she was the one that did.

“She got a couple and-one putbacks,” SU guard Maggie Morrison said. “She kind of got our momentum going when we weren’t hitting shots from outside… instead of hitting our 3s she was getting our 3-point plays down low.”

Published on January 14, 2016 at 11:35 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati