The Syracuse players huddled in a circle around head coach Quentin Hillsman. The public address announcer boomed the names of SU’s starters through the Carrier Dome speakers, but none of them budged.

No pregame rituals. No flashy handshakes. Just a few final words from the head coach.

“We don’t come out for starting lineups anymore because we got seven starters,” Hillsman said. “Until they start announcing seven people we’re not coming out.”

On Wednesday night against Coppin State, the Orange was more than just seven deep. Taylor Ford, the fourth substitution for SU and its ninth player on the court, scored a career-high and game-high 21 points. Maggie Morrison, the eighth, added nine points and the ninth, freshman Julia Chandler, tallied 11. Syracuse’s bench players combined for 50 points and led the Orange (6-2) to an 88-56 win over the Eagles (2-6).

“This is the first game where I really just trusted our bench and just played them,” Hillsman said, “and it worked great.”

Less than 30 seconds after coming into the game, Ford lined up on the right wing and sunk a 3.

She grabbed an offensive rebound and finished with a layup. Then Brittney Sykes found her in transition for an easy bucket. Then Morrison poked the ball out of Coppin State guard Keena Samuels’ hand on the press and converted the uncontested shot.

A tie game prior to Morrison and Ford coming in was turned into a 17-10 Syracuse lead.

“I knew immediately I had to be aggressive,” Ford said. “I had to do something to pick my team up … Me being aggressive at first knocking down 3s motivated everyone else to play harder.”

Briana and Bria Day and guard Alexis Peterson got into foul trouble early, forcing Hillsman to dip into his reserves more frequently than usual.

Ford finished the half 5-for-5 with 13 points, including three 3-pointers. The bench’s 20 points at the half was just six shy of Coppin State’s team total.

Chandler’s first time off the bench she was stripped in the post and Hillsman took her out. On the sideline, Briana Day pulled her aside on the bench to give her pointers.

The struggles didn’t last as Chandler was soon blocking shots in the post, knocking down 3s from the wing and cleaning up the boards in place of the Day sisters.

“We talk about seven, eight, nine, 10 playing well off the bench and they were tremendous,” Hillsman said. “Julia Chandler shot the ball like she can do it and Taylor played awesome and Corn (Cornelia Fondren) just filled it up.”

When Ford’s layup on a play where she was fouled rolled out of the rim to start the fourth quarter, she stomped her foot into the court.

But it was almost the only thing that didn’t fall for her on the night. Of her 10 shots, she missed just two. Fondren and Morrison both shot over 50 percent, too.

By the end of the game, SU’s seven-player bench had nearly matched the Eagles entire team and outscored its own starters by 12. Guard Savannah Crocetti came off the bench for just her second appearance of the season.

“I think that speak volumes,” Peterson said. “If we can play like that and get that type of bench performance we’ll be a hard team to beat.”

Hillsman said who starts and who doesn’t is insignificant. The only difference is the handshake.

On Wednesday night, though, the difference was 12. Twelve more points for SU’s bench than its starters.

Published on December 9, 2015 at 11:04 pm

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