Syracuse (15-11, 9-6 Atlantic Coast) added to its winning streak with a 59-46 win over Clemson (7-20, 3-13) in the Carrier Dome.

A four-point second quarter proved to be the anomaly for SU, as the Orange pulled away in the second half with a 18-4 run to end the third. Eventually, Syracuse improved its all-time record against Clemson to 9-0.

Point guard Kiara Lewis led SU with a game-high 17 points, and sophomore forward Emily Engstler dished the most assists of the game (five) despite dealing with foul trouble.

Here are three takeaways from SU’s fifth-straight win:

From the jump

Shortly after Amaya Finklea-Guity won the game’s opening tip-off, Syracuse went on a blistering 10-0 run.

SU started the scoring spurt when Emily Engstler drove past a closeout, jump-stopped outside the paint and shoveled a pass to a wide-open Finklea-Guity at the rim. Threes from Gabrielle Cooper and Kiara Lewis followed, and Finklea-Guity recorded a block and a steal.

Before Clemson head coach Amanda Butler could call a timeout two minutes in, her team had more turnovers (two) than field goal attempts (one). When play resumed, the Tigers couldn’t even cross half court against SU’s full-court press, earning a 10-second violation.

“When we were able to get into our pressure defense it caused a lot of turnovers,” Lewis said.

Two-minutes-and-fifty-seconds in, and Syracuse had set the tone. But, a nine-minute scoring drought spanning between the first and second quarter allowed the Tigers back in it with an 11-0 burst of their own.

Beyond the box score

Her numbers won’t jump off the stat sheet, but freshman guard Teisha Hyman dominated.

On one play in the first half, she split a double team when Clemson tried to play its three-quarter-court trap. Then, she swung a cross-court dime to Gabrielle Cooper in the opposite corner, who found Kiara Lewis with an extra tap. Hyman’s vision to beat pressure and keep her head up allowed the 3-pointer to happen. Hockey assists don’t show up in box scores, but they certainly matter.

Defensively, Hyman’s activity at the top of SU’s press gave Clemson ball handlers trouble. During Syracuse’s second-quarter scoring drought, Hyman sprinted from right to left to trap a Tiger guard by the scorer’s table, then stayed with her until SU got another double-team, this time in the opposite corner.

Her smoothest offensive moves — beside the impressive skip pass — came on back-to-back in the third quarter, when she drove past a closeout from the corner and lofted in a floater over the outstretched hand of 6-foot-4 Tylar Bennett. On the next possession, she made the same move from the corner but instead slipped a pass to a rolling Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi for a lay-in. Both plays were part of SU’s quarter-ending 18-4 run.

Hyman finished with two points, two assists and four rebounds, going an inefficient 1-for-9 from the field. Still, she recorded a +12 plus/minus and Hillsman trusted her ball-handling skills enough to let her help close the final minutes.

On the glass

Syracuse tracked down a season-high 24 offensive rebounds on Thursday. After the game, head coach Quentin Hillsman joked that “you don’t get a lot of offensive rebounds unless you miss a lot of shots.”

While true, that might be underselling SU’s efforts on the offensive boards. Led by 5-foot-10 guard Gabrielle Cooper, the Orange rebounded more than half of their misses (24 of 45). Cooper finished with a game-high 10 rebounds, five of which were offensive.

On an errant Digna Strautmane 3-pointer from the wing, Cooper judged its trajectory and came flying in from the weak side, screaming ‘Me’ as she hauled it in.

“That’s what Gabby does,” Hillsman said. “When she plays with that kind of energy, we’re going to be tough.”

Both Syracuse’s offensive rebounds and forced turnovers allowed the Orange to handily win the possession battle. SU took 67 shots to the Tigers’ 43.

Published on February 20, 2020 at 9:00 pm

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