Syracuse didn’t hoist at least 50 3-pointers as head coach Quentin Hillsman predicted, which would have been a program record. It didn’t make the 14 or 15 that he said would’ve put it in a good spot to win, but it also did better than the four made 3s that, he said, likely would’ve meant a loss.

The promise didn’t do much, but it did do one thing: it gave Maggie Morrison the assurance needed to let shots fly.

Coming off one of her worst shooting performances of the year against No. 13 seed Army on Friday, Morrison rebounded to be the most efficient player from behind the arc on Sunday. She shot 3-of-5 from 3-point land and finished with 11 points. In Syracuse’s win over 12th-seeded Albany on Sunday to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in team history, Morrison paced its 3-point shooting. She was a viable threat off the bench for the fourth-seeded Orange (27-7, 13-3 Atlantic Coast) on Sunday and will be when SU heads to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to face first-seeded South Carolina (33-1, 16-0 South Eastern) on Friday.

“I think I went 1-for-whatever, which is pretty bad,” Morrison said of her 1-for-13 showing in the Round of 64 against Army. “(Hillsman) said it in the press conference. ‘We’re shooting 50 3s today, so just let it fly’ and you know that puts a lot of confidence in us to shoot out of our slumps.”

In the opening quarter, Morrison stood open on the right wing behind the arc before point guard Alexis Peterson found her and Morrison launched a shot that hit nothing but net.

The next time down the court, Peterson hesitated near half court as Albany’s press closed in, then jumped and threw an over-the-head pass across the court from left to right to Morrison, who was standing in the same spot. She got off the quick shot again and made it.

In two shots, Morrison turned Syracuse’s five-point deficit into a one-point lead with less than two minutes to play in the first quarter. She erased the Great Danes’ final lead of the game.

“Maggie Morrison hit some tough shots for us,” Hillsman said.

 

Evan Jenkins | Staff Photographer

 

Albany’s defense was playing a zone, as expected. But that zone extended aggressively out to the 3-point line and Syracuse’s shooters. On the Orange’s ball screens, defenders would run over top and take away the immediate 3-point shot as first priority. When the Orange would cycle the ball around the arc, the Great Danes’ defenders would often be there to try to tip a pass away or pressure a shooter before she even caught the ball.

Not only did Syracuse not get close to 50 3s, it didn’t even reach its average of more than 30 attempts per game, finishing with 27.

“They really extended out,” Hillsman said. “They took some shots away that we would normally get. They really got good rotations in the defense … they really were tremendous on defense.”

What did work for getting shooters open was Peterson, Morrison said. The point guard would dribble through double-team traps near the half-court line and hit the player that was left often with a pass.

Morrison’s last 3 of the day came on a cycle around the edge of the 3-point line that she shot as soon as she caught. Albany’s Imani Tate crashed into Morrison sending her back a few steps, but she was still able to get the shot to fall.

The basket gave the Orange an 18-point lead, its biggest lead of the day, in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

This wasn’t like the Duke game when Morrison came in and hit seven 3s on her way to a game- and career-high 25 points. But it was the small boost off the bench that SU needed.

“We need to have someone who can come in and make plays and do good things for us,” backup center Bria Day said. “And I think that she really did that.”

Published on March 21, 2016 at 10:01 pm

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