For the second consecutive possession, Amaya Finklea-Guity saw an opening behind her and thrust her right hand in the air. Kiara Lewis stalled outside the 3-point arc in SU’s season-opener against Ohio, locked eyes with Finklea-Guity and lobbed a pass toward the right block. Lewis’ pass beat Ohio’s defensive rotation, giving Finklea-Guity a clear path to the basket.

But her shot bounced off the backboard, the side of the rim and back into play. It was the second straight sequence the junior had missed a chance from the same spot. As Finklea-Guity dropped her head and jogged back down the court, Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman turned toward his bench and pointed at Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi.

“(Finklea-Guity’s) just missing shots,” Hillsman said. “She’s getting good looks.”

Finklea-Guity wasn’t the focal point of No. 18 Syracuse’s (4-3) offense during her first two seasons, but she was thrust into a larger role when the Orange lost their top two scorers from last year. She tried to add new aspects to her game over the summer with new assistant coach DeLisha Milton-Jones — a stronger pivot down low, a mid-range jumper like Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi and an assortment of face-up moves. 

Players said they noticed. So did Hillsman. But through seven games, Finklea-Guity has only scored double-digits once, instead stumbling into a defense-oriented role similar to last year.

“I’ve been working to make more mid-range, just trying to open up more in the post,” Finklea-Guity said on Nov. 20. “That’s really been my focus, I haven’t been doing it that much in the last three games.”

A lack of scoring hasn’t cost her a starting spot, though. Finklea-Guity’s patrolled the middle of SU’s 2-3 zone and taken every opening tip-off for the Orange, but this season hasn’t been the breakout year she and high school coach Alex Gallagher said it would be. 

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They said she’d be on the court for more than her height, more than her blocks and more than her rebounds, like she was in her final two years at Noble and Greenough (Massachusetts) School when she averaged 16.8 points and 14.5 rebounds as a senior. As a freshman with the Bulldogs, Finklea-Guity had the size to immediately become an asset to Gallagher’s lineup, but still lacked simple keys to be a post player. Until she was 10, Finklea-Guity had never played the sport and was just starting to complement defensive skills.

Finklea-Guity’s size allowed her to snag rebounds over smaller opponents as a freshman, but she played sparingly, often as the 15th player to see the court. She played in the middle of Noble and Greenough’s 2-3 zone — just like the 6-foot-4 center does now — and eventually developed enough offensive skills to average a double-double and become the nation’s No. 5 post player in her recruiting class. 

“She went out and put me in a spot where she had to be one of our top five kids,” Gallagher said.

Finklea-Guity was recruited to be the Orange’s starting center from the first game in 2017-18, Hillsman’s long-term replacement to twins Bria and Briana Day. That year, she averaged 24.6 minutes per game — still her highest — but only 5.3 shots.

Heading into this season, Finklea-Guity knew she’d have to produce more on offense. She returned to Noble and Greenough to train with Gallagher and her mother Paula and ran through mid-range jumper drills. She’d start in the corner and work her way around the edge of the paint, imitating her spots in Syracuse’s two-guard sets. But she slowly stepped back, inch by inch, as the season neared. 

So far this season, that practice has rarely paid off. Besides scoring 11 points in 13 minutes against Houston on Nov. 28, Finklea-Guity hasn’t recorded double-digit points. She takes almost all her shots at the rim but is shooting 43.6% overall. 

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She’s gotten into good positions but hasn’t converted. A cut to the left block against Maryland Eastern Shore didn’t lead to a bucket when a Gabrielle Cooper pass bounced off her leg. Neither have chances in transition or from offensive rebounds. 

“It happens,” Hillsman said. “It happens with jump shooters, it happens with post players, it happens with players on the floor just in general.”

After Finklea-Guity subbed out after making a free throw against the Bobcats, she strolled down the SU bench and stopped for a brief second next to Hillman.

“Just get to the middle and then turn around and make the layup,’” Finklea-Guity recalled Hillsman saying. “‘That’s all I need you to do.’”

Four minutes later, she checked back in. With the clock ticking under 10 seconds, Finklea-Guity threw her left hand in the air as she cut across the paint. She received a Taleah Washington pass, spun left and finished a layup as the buzzer sounded. Without pumping her fist or showing emotion, Finklea-Guity simply circled back toward the bench.

Published on December 1, 2019 at 9:15 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @CraneAndrew