With 29 seconds left in the game, a Stony Brook player scrambled to inbound the ball. Her eyes darted across the court and all she could find was white jerseys sticking to blue. When the official blew his whistle and signaled the five-second violation, the Carrier Dome crowd cheered the loudest it had all game. Part of the Syracuse bench rushed the floor.

Aaliyah Worley was in a similar situation 26 seconds later. The score now knotted at 69, she was inbounding the ball from in front of the scorer’s table. Worley saw no open teammates and panicked. She heaved the ball near center-court and into the arms of Isis Young. Though SU didn’t win the game on the next possession, SU’s defense had done enough to send the game to overtime.

Both stops came in the middle of an eight-minute stretch where the Orange (8-0) limited the Seawolves (5-2) to one field goal and five points in its 81-70 overtime victory on Sunday afternoon. After SBU gained a five-point lead with 1:26 left in regulation, the Seawolves shot 2-for-5 from the free throw line, committed two turnovers and scored just one point in the extra frame.

“We did what we have to do to win basketball games,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “and we occasionally dug in and got some stops and that was big.”

In the days leading up to the contest, Hillsman said he tried to prepare his team for Stony Brook’s go-to play: an off-ball screen resulting in an open corner 3. Still, it didn’t matter. SBU repeatedly got into its half-court set and swung the ball around the left side of the Orange zone. Then, as the weak-side defender moved closer to the paint, a shooter leaked out. A Seawolves forward set a screen, giving the shooter an open look.

Multiple times in the second half, Hillsman pointed to the open Seawolves player in the corner and yelled at his defense to pay attention. Stony Brook shot 8-for-30 from behind the arc and seven of its 3-pointers came from the corner.

“We just have to do a better job of calling screens and getting proper rotations,” Hillsman said of the off-ball screen. “… That’s a play that we run, the slice. We know the play and it was odd. It was confusing.”

Hillsman yelled “man-up” throughout the contest in order to limit Stony Brook’s shooting. SU, which normally deploys a 2-3 zone, would change schemes mid-possession. The switch, however, would let SBU forwards crash the glass on its offensive end. Syracuse allowed 15 offensive rebounds, its highest-single game mark of the year.

“So anytime we take 3’s away,” Hillsman said. “or to be able to guard the ball with certain personnel, we’re going to play man. A lot of teams think we just play zone …We do a great of disguising our defense.”

Jerrell Matthews’ 3-pointer with 1:26 left in regulation seemed like the dagger. Twenty-two seconds later, SU’s hopes were dimmed when Digna Strautmane fouled out. But, the Orange scrambled. Hillsman shouted from the bench to double-team SBU’s leading scorer, Shania Johnson. Defenders fought over the back-door screens and did just enough to disrupt shots. Amaya Finklea-Guity doubled her rebound total in the game’s final 15 minutes.

Even when Syracuse seemed like it would lose its first game of the season, a late defensive push helped give the Orange all it needed to force overtime and pull away.

Published on December 3, 2017 at 6:28 pm

Contact Nick: nialvare@syr.edu | @nick_a_alvarez