Clank. Clank.

That was the sound of the ball bouncing off the rim as the noise traveled throughout the seemingly empty Carrier Dome.

Five times Syracuse missed at least two shots in a single possession as the Orange shot 9-for-36 from the field in the first half of Sunday’s blowout win against an inferior 2-8 North Carolina Central team. At one point, Bria Day, Cornelia Fondren and Diamond Henderson combined to miss four shots in a 13-second span.

For the third consecutive half, SU shot worse than 31 percent from the field.

In the end, it didn’t matter since Syracuse forced 30 turnovers and shot the ball well enough — 43.3 percent — in the second half to create separation in the 45-point win, but the inconsistent shooting is something the Orange must continue to work on.

“When you look at some of the percentages that we’re holding teams to defensively, it’s really good, but then when we’re shooting in the 20s, it’s not great anymore,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said.

Syracuse is shooting 38.8 percent on the season, good for 199th best in Division I and worst among teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But Hillsman said the only thing No. 19 Syracuse (7-1) can do to improve is just keep taking open shots heading into another nonconference contest, this time with Canisius (4-4, 2-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Carrier Dome.

Brianna Butler, who was the Orange’s second leading scorer last season, has been regularly coming up short on her shots. While Hillsman’s only idea for improvement is to keep shooting, Butler said she thinks she needs to generate more power from her legs.

“I just think it’s not there yet,” Butler said, “just not falling yet.”

Three minutes into the second half on Sunday, Hillsman yelled at Butler to shoot when she has the chance. Moments later, she did and the ball hit the rim and bounced out. Twenty seconds after that, Butler’s shot was blocked and she was subsequently subbed out for Henderson.

Henderson then air-balled a 3-point attempt, which contributed to her 1-of-12 shooting effort in just 16 minutes on the court. This progression reflected SU’s recent shooting trend as a whole after struggling against Penn State on Dec. 4 and in the beginning of Sunday’s game against N.C. Central.

The confidence is there, just not the execution, something junior forward Taylor Ford attributed to shot selection.

“Sometimes we rush our shots instead of taking the right shots when we are open,” Ford said.

But 40 second-half points on Sunday restored belief that Syracuse can shoot effectively.

On Friday, Hillsman said he thinks his team is much better at shooting than it had been showing. With five nonconference games left — two of which are against ranked opponents at the end of the week — Tuesday night’s game presents the opportunity the Orange needs to eliminate the clanks and increase the swishes.

“When they’re open, they have to shoot the ball,” Hillsman said. “… Because the kind of players we have, the kind of shooters that we have, the shots are going to fall.”

Published on December 15, 2014 at 8:20 pm

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