Women's Basketball

Briana Day scores season-high 22 points in blowout win over Central Connecticut State

Colin Davy | Staff Photographer

Briana Day soars in the air on Sunday in the Carrier Dome. She scored 22 points in 18 minutes.

Last Wednesday against Michigan State, whose lineup featured three players above 6-foot, Briana Day faked right and went left on separate occasions. Her up-and-under move shined then, and she flashed it again Sunday when her jump hook didn’t work.

Though Day saw the floor for only 18 minutes on Sunday afternoon, she scored a season-high 22 points and grabbed eight boards.

In No. 20 Syracuse’s (6-3) win, Day racked up her highest scoring total since last December. The 6-foot-4 center said last week after SU’s 11-point victory over Michigan State that she needed to take more shots. The next game, a 95-63 victory against Central Connecticut State (1-6) on Sunday in the Carrier Dome, she floated near the top of the key and around the basket with ease, taking a season-high 14 shots.

“She’s gotten very good at reading the defense,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “She has her jump hook. When they take it away, she can go to her counter moves.”

Day hit a couple of mid-range jumpers against MSU last week, and  she didn’t hesitate to knock down a long jumper from just inside the 3-point line on Sunday. With Alexis Peterson at the point, Day popped several times to the nearby wing. Even when she didn’t score from the spot, she opened up the middle for guards Peterson and Brittney Sykes to slash. The pair combined for 52 points, more than half of SU’s output.



“If she can pick and pop, knock down shots, it makes it harder for the defense because they’re expecting the 5 to load back,” said Peterson, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s leading scorer who finished with 26 points.

Two years ago, Day, then a sophomore, scored 11 points in a 31-point win against CCSU. When asked whether Syracuse’s center had evolved since the last meeting, Blue Devils head coach Beryl Piper said, “Not so much.” Where Day found her sweet spot, Piper said, is on mismatches, as CCSU’s tallest player is 2 inches shorter than Day.

In the second quarter, Day had a steal then assisted to Sykes in transition to extend the SU lead to 14. All six of Day’s points in that quarter came inside the paint. She got an and-one at the end of the third to make it a 23-point game.

Day’s offensive role is amplified of late, considering fellow big Isabella Slim’s scoring has dropped off since the first four games of the year. As sophomore Julia Chandler still looks to score, Day is SU’s lone consistent offensive threat down low. Still, she recognizes she has at times been pushed around inside. In the fourth quarter, she grabbed a rebound but the ball got stripped. The senior admits she still hasn’t corralled a stronghold on all her boards, even the ones she grabs.

“I’ve got to rebound a little more,” Day said.

Still, Day picked up back-to-back rebounds off Gabby Cooper and Jade Phillips missed 3-pointers. On the second offensive rebound, giving SU a third chance, Day laid in two points.

Though she played only six minutes in the second half, she went an efficient 5-of-8 from the field. And though she played fewer than 20 minutes, she shined with her best offensive game yet in her senior campaign.

“She’s become more comfortable in all aspects of her offensive game,” Hillsman said. “Anytime we can get 22 points from her, with her size, her position, we’re going to be pretty good.”





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