Gabrielle Cooper rarely pays much mind to how close she is to the 3-point arc, as long as she is behind it. On an extended Syracuse first possession after an offensive rebound, Cooper caught the ball a few steps beyond the arc on the left wing and fired. As a sign of things to come from Syracuse’s 3-point shooters in the first half on Sunday, Cooper drained it.

“Most of the time I don’t recognize where I’m at,” Cooper said. “(My teammates) always tell me ‘step in,’ I thought I was on the line, but I guess I’m not. They tell me I’m like five steps behind the line and I’m shocked.”

It was the first of four 3s that she’d hit in the first 20 minutes of the game and the first of eight that Syracuse (15-5, 3-4 Atlantic Coast) made on 14 first-half attempts. The 3s gave Syracuse a 13-point lead at the half in an eventual 70-52 win over Pittsburgh (9-11, 1-6) in the Carrier Dome. SU and Cooper slowed down in the second half from deep but had done more than enough in the first.

“We knew we would get some looks, they’ve been zoning the entire season,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “First half I thought we did a good job getting open looks.”

After Cooper’s game-opening 3, the Orange missed its next two attempts from deep before Digna Strautmane lined up on the right wing. Syracuse’s 6-foot-2 freshman forward unleashed from the right side of her body and nailed the shot.

The right wing became the hot spot for Syracuse later in the first quarter when Cooper lined up and hit another 3 from that spot, still deep behind the line. Tiana Mangakahia joined the right-wing party a few trips later when she made a 3 there.

The second quarter didn’t change Cooper’s fortunes from that spot. Twice in the second frame, the sophomore lined up 3s from that same area and made them again. She finished four for six from beyond the 3-point line in the first half. It was the sixth time she’d made at least four 3s in a game and one off her season-high of five makes from deep against Hartford. In her last seven games, she didn’t once reach the 40 percent mark from deep that she did today.

“I have off nights, and I try not to let it bother me, but in reality, it still does, so when I’m hitting, when I’m making shots, it makes me feel that much better,” Cooper said.

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Less than three minutes into the second half, Strautmane completed a feat she’d yet to this season: make two 3s in the same game.

“Just work in practices and coaches are working with me and I’m just trying to get better, so I hope it’s gonna get better,” Strautmane said.

Against Pitt’s 2-3 zone, Strautmane ran the baseline from the left corner to the right as the ball was fed to Amaya Finklea-Guity at the high post. Strautmane’s frontcourt mate found her wide open and hit her with an overhead pass. The ensuing 3 by Strautmane seemed to signal a continuation of the first half pattern, but it didn’t.

The Orange made just one 3-pointer in the final 17 minutes of Sunday’s game. After making 8-of-14 in the first half, SU went just 2-of-16 in the second half.

“Second half, (Pitt head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio) made a good adjustment and started getting us matched up a little bit and we were able to turn the corner and play in the paint a little more,” Hillsman said. “Gotta give (McConnell-Serio) a good job for her adjustment.”

Much of the missing production was due to an off-game for Miranda Drummond, who missed all seven of her 3-point tries even as a 40.7 percent shooter from distance entering the ball game. She had made at least one 3-pointer in every game since Dec. 17’s matchup with Coastal Carolina, eight straight games with a make. It was just her third game of 20 in which she’s failed to make a 3.

Drummond, who missed six 3s after the halftime break, wasn’t alone in her second-half struggles. Cooper missed all four of her distance tries. Mangakahia missed all three of hers. But the hot first half for Syracuse meant it didn’t matter.

Cooper’s second-to-last 3-point attempt came from the right wing again. She was a few steps behind the line, again. This time, she airballed, long and over the rim.

Her last distance attempt line-drived hard off the rim. But this season, sometimes the number of attempts has correlated with the right results for SU. Entering today, Syracuse was 10-1 in games it attempted 30 3s. Cooper’s shot that clanged off the rim was ironically SU’s 30th and final attempt from beyond the arc on Sunday, its 11th win out of 12 with that magic number.

“We just shot the ball well, we shot it with confidence, and followed through,” Cooper said.

Published on January 21, 2018 at 5:43 pm

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