The Syracuse bench rose in unison as Miranda Drummond launched a 3-pointer from the corner. With every set of eyes in the arena on it, the ball reached its apex before falling toward the hoop.

Then, for the 34th time in the game, the shot missed the mark. This time, instead of sitting down in disappointment, the Syracuse bench stayed standing and walked down the sideline to the middle of the court to shake hands with Georgia Tech, who’d just served the Orange their first conference loss of the season.

Its worst shooting performance in nearly two years sunk No. 12 Syracuse (15-3, 4-1 Atlantic Coast) on Sunday against Georgia Tech (13-6, 3-3), 65-55. The Orange shot an abysmal 23.9 percent from the field and missed 34 of 42 3-pointers en route to snapping its nine-game winning streak. Drummond and Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi were the only double-digit scorers for Syracuse, with 15 and 10, respectively. Reigning ACC Player of the Week Tiana Mangakahia, who exploded for 44 points against the Yellow Jackets last season, had more turnovers (six) than points (five) for just the second time in her Syracuse career.

“They did a good job … to keep Tiana out of the paint, to keep Tiana in front of them,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said to SU Athletics after the game. “We gotta make shots; I don’t know what to say.”

Coming off a season-high 22 points against Pittsburgh on Thursday, Digna Strautmane opened up the scoring for the Orange with a 3-pointer from the left wing. Unfortunately for Syracuse, after Strautmane’s triple, its offense went cold. SU went over four minutes without scoring, allowing the Yellow Jackets to take a 7-3 lead.

Djaldi-Tabdi broke the cold stretch with two free throws, but it wasn’t until 2:28 left in the quarter that the Orange downed its second field goal of the game, a fastbreak layup by Mangakahia. After missing 14 of its first 15 field goal attempts, Syracuse went on a run after the bucket. It nailed its next three shots, and a free throw by Mangakahia at the end of the quarter marked SU’s 10th point in a row to give it a 15-12 lead.

The run stretched to 12 straight points before Georgia Tech halted it, but Drummond and Emily Engstler promptly answered with back-to-back 3s. The deep balls stretched the Orange’s run to 18-2 and extended its lead to a game-high nine points, which soon grew to 11 following a Yellow Jackets timeout.

Two buckets by Kierra Fletcher and a triple by Elizabeth Balogun were answered only by two technical free throws by Drummond, allowing Georgia Tech to cut the deficit to 27-21. Drummond added two more to go along with a pair by Kiara Lewis, but SU’s shooting woes from the start of the game reappeared to end the half.

The Orange failed to make a field goal for nearly six minutes in the second quarter, going 0-10 from the field during the span before Gabrielle Cooper drained a jumper at the halftime buzzer. Despite missing 11 of its 15 shots during the period, SU outscored the Yellow Jackets 20-13 in the second on the back of 10 free throws to take a 35-25 lead into the break.

“They went to a zone, and they just shut us down,” Hillsman said. “They went to a 2-3 zone, and we just didn’t execute.”

The teams traded misses out of halftime before a Georgia Tech 3 broke the ice and was immediately followed by the Orange, with two of their own. That pushed Syracuse’s lead back into double-digits where it stayed for the next five minutes, except for 10 seconds when the gap was eight, before the Yellow Jackets cut their deficit to six with 2:46 left.

SU called a timeout to stopped the bleeding, but to no avail. Its offense went into a funk for the third consecutive quarter, failing to score for more than three and a half minutes until Drummond sank two free throws. This time it was too little, too late though, as for the first time all game, Georgia Tech took advantage of the Orange’s shooting struggles. The Yellow Jackets outscored SU 21-13 in the third, and trailed by just two entering the fourth.

Strautmane opened the final quarter with a basket, but Georgia Tech immediately scored on the other end to again close the game within two points. For nearly three minutes the squads went empty-handed from the field, before a Mangakahia layup doubled her team’s lead again. The poor shooting resumed though, and another scoreless stretch by SU allowed the Yellow Jackets to tie the game with a 3-pointer with just 4:22 left.

“The last quarter, they came out and pushed us,” Hillsman said, “and we didn’t respond.”

A free throw pushed Georgia Tech on top for the first time since the first quarter, and it didn’t let go of its lead. Syracuse missed a 3. The Yellow Jackets made a layup. The Orange attempted another shot from deep. Off again. Georgia Tech converted two free throws.

A 3-pointer by Cooper brought the Orange back within 2 with 1:40 to go, but Syracuse never scored again. SU’s ugly shooting had finally caught up to it. The Yellow Jackets finished the game on 8-0 run to cap off a 19-7 fourth quarter, serving Syracuse its first conference loss of the season.

“At the end of the day, I got to do a better job of getting our team ready to play,” Hillsman said. “I can’t let a zone defense jump up and bite us.”

Published on January 20, 2019 at 5:23 pm

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