WINTER PARK, Fla. – Aerial Powers stood with her right arm frozen in the air and her right hand curled toward the basket – a picturesque follow-through on a fundamentally sound 3-point basket.

Powers’ triple with 4:45 left in regulation gave No. 18 Michigan State an eight-point lead, all-but securing a victory over No. 19 Syracuse.

The only thing Powers didn’t do at Warden Arena on Sunday was sell concessions. In the first half alone, the first-team All-Big Ten selection from a year ago scored 14 points, grabbed eight rebounds – three offensive – and picked up three steals.

“Aerial is a very good player in transition, is very good in the mid-range, and does a very good job at getting into the killer spots on the floor,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “She did a good job at getting to the spots where she can score and she did a very good job rebounding.”

Powers finished with a career-high 32 points, 17 rebounds, four steals and three blocks, leading the Spartans (8-3) to an 89-76 victory over SU (8-3) in the final game of the Florida Sunshine Classic on the campus of Rollins College.

For the second time in three days, the Orange went down to the wire with a Top-25 team, and for the third time this season, lost against a Top-25 team in the final minutes.

“It’s encouraging because you know you’re just as good, but it’s also discouraging because you know you probably should have come out with the ‘W’,” Syracuse guard Diamond Henderson said. “For however many minutes we didn’t go hard for or a situation that happened in the game, that’s what’s discouraging about it.”

With Michigan State leading 31-27 with 2:27 to go in the first half, Powers flew through the lane and intercepted an inbounds pass, then threw a slick pass to a cutting Tori Jankoska underneath. Jankoska made the layup, but missed the free throw after being fouled by SU’s Cornelia Fondren.

Powers, backpedaling toward half court, let out a scream while raising her right hand for a high-five with Jankoska. Moments later, Powers blocked a Henderson jump shot and made one of her own on the other end, giving the Spartans a 39-35 lead heading into the half.

“We just didn’t do a good enough job of containing her,” Syracuse’s Brianna Butler said. “She’s a good player all-around and we knew that coming into the game. We just made her a better player today.”

With the score knotted at 43 six minutes into the second half, Powers drove coast-to-coast with Butler in front of her. Butler hacked Powers, who made the shot and the ensuing free throw.

With Syracuse trailing and Butler still mired in her season-long shooting woes, it was forward Taylor Ford who answered time and time again for the Orange down the stretch. The junior scored a season-high 14 points, with nine of them coming in the second half.

Ford made a layup with 9:03 left in regulation to cut a five-point deficit to three at 59-56. Twenty seconds later, she made a top-of-the-key jumper, once again, bringing the Orange to within three. Two minutes later, the forward hit another jump shot to bring the Orange to within two, at 65-63.

“We were down by a couple of points, so I was just trying to do what I could do so we could get back up,” Ford said.

But from there, Michigan State went on a 7-2 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Jankoska to extend Michigan State’s lead to 72-65.

Fittingly, Powers made four free throws in the final 37 seconds to put the game away, handing the Orange its second consecutive loss and third overall against a ranked opponent.

“To lose by a little bit in the last minutes of the game, it’s kind of hard on us,” Butler said. “The good thing is that we’re able to compete with these big-time schools. But we have high expectations to do better.”

Published on December 21, 2014 at 6:16 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu