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At the beginning of the second quarter, Syracuse guard Teisha Hyman positioned herself on the left wing ready for another 3-point attempt in acting head coach Vonn Read’s spaced-out offense. Alaina Rice passed the ball to her, allowing Hyman to score from deep with ease.

But Hyman, who’s coming off her second ACL tear in her basketball career, didn’t turn around and head back the other way to play defense. She was the tenet of Syracuse’s full-court press, forcing her to run forward after her 3. Directly after Morgan State inbounded the ball to point guard Emily Jones, Hyman — still with a brace around her right knee — quickly swiped the ball away for an unguarded layup.

“She’s aggressive and she’ll take some chances up there,” Read said about Hyman in the press. “Teisha is being Teisha. For a minute she was outscoring their whole team.”

Hyman headed into the locker room at halftime with half of the Orange’s 34 points. By the end of Wednesday’s night’s 79-60 win over Morgan State, Hyman finished with 23 points, nine rebounds and three steals in her third game back after tearing her right ACL two seasons ago. Syracuse notched a total of 16 steals with its full-court press, building off of 25 steals from its opening two games this season. But the Orange maintained a poor shooting performance from deep, finishing with a 25% 3-point percentage after shooting the same percentage against Notre Dame in their last game.

Syracuse stayed strong defensively at the start of the game with a full-court press anchored by redshirt sophomore Hyman. But both Christianna Carr and Chrislyn Carr were the first to create turnovers, totaling four steals in the first five minutes of the game.

The Orange didn’t use the system against the Fighting Irish as much last week as Read said Notre Dame was able to establish its offense in the high post, not allowing Syracuse to defend heavily right after the inbound pass. But against the Bears, Syracuse used the full-court press throughout the entire game, even in garbage time.

“We’ve been putting it in. It’s one of the things that we’re known for and something we want to continue to do,” Read said. “Teisha is exceptional at the top of the press because she’s active and she has long arms — she’s athletic.”

Read said that another reason for the efficiency of the press was the team’s mentality overall this season. The acting head coach said his players “naturally” play more competitive on the defensive end.

“We have players who naturally want to play that way, naturally want to play in the passing lanes and be aggressive,” Read said. “We have to be able to force turnovers and take care of the ball as well.”

Still, the Orange were unable to capitalize on those steals early as Christianna missed on the fastbreak after making a steal of her own and Najé Murray traveled after a steal from Chrislyn.

But Syracuse eventually settled into Wednesday night’s matchup using Read’s spread-out offense. By the end of the first quarter, the Orange had a 12-point lead, two more than they had at the end of the first period the last time they faced Morgan State.

Syracuse was able to string together a series of fastbreaks, unlike earlier in the season when it missed easy opportunities. The success started from the full-court press defense, anchored by Hyman and on offense, which Murray said makes up for the lack of height on the Orange’s guard-heavy team.

“We can speed teams up, make teams do things out of hand,” Murray said. “We’re gonna be a fun, fast-paced, pressing team this year.”

Hyman started her impact in the full-court press at the start of the second quarter, when she stole the ball from Jones after hitting a 3-pointer. Hyman said that she’s been able to return to her “quiet assassin” abilities, specializing in making hustle plays. She finished the first half with a team-high 17 points, including six rebounds and two assists.

Hyman said that her domination in the system was because of her setup with Murray, staying in front of Murray during each defensive possession. If Hyman saw an opportunity to pressure Jones or any other player from Morgan State, she would lurch forward trying to make a steal.

“Instincts,” Hyman said about what helps her in the press. “Give (Najé) credit, she and I got a little thing going on. We kind of feed off each other. Sometimes Chrislyn too.”

Murray said the duo’s setup has worked against “really good teams,” as Notre Dame, but specifically succeeded against the Bears and their struggling offense. “We read each other and I have a nice visual, I can see the back of her,” Murray said. “It’s just chemistry building every single game. I think we get better at it every single game.”

At the start of the second half, Syracuse continued to set up long shots from its players, finding Murray again for an open look to give SU a 39-20 lead. Christianna and Hyman shot from deep on two ensuing possessions, but both were unsuccessful.

Still, the Orange improved from their 25% shooting performance from beyond the arc in their loss to Notre Dame, shooting slightly better with a 28.6% success rate halfway through the third quarter. Rice said that SU’s struggles from deep were due to players losing confidence in their ability instead of continuing to shoot.

“When players miss shots they get down, but they just need to keep shooting and they’ll get better,” Rice said.

The struggle from deep led to defensive issues for the Orange as they were unable to fall back on defense, despite using a court press. After Murray hit two free throws, the Bears’ Jayla Atmore found Dahnye Redd wide open because Eboni Walker was unable to catch up.

But Walker made up for her mistake late in the third quarter in her role as Syracuse’s center. Read said that because of the multitude of guards on the Orange’s roster, the team would play center “by committee” using Walker, Alaysia Styles and Christianna. After her block, Walker secured the ball and sent a full-court heave to freshman Nyah Wilson, who scored with a layup off the glass.

Before Walker’s block, Hyman kick-started Syracuse’s defensive success after its troubles earlier in the second half. She mimicked her play from the opening two quarters, dominating in the full-court press.

After hitting two free throws, Hyman dropped back as if she was going back into Syracuse’s half before bolting toward the ball. She was able to steal from Jones again, directly in front of the basket. Instead of using the backboard as she did on her previous steal-and-score, Hyman found the bottom of the net with a finger roll.

“We like her at the top of the press,” Read said.

Published on November 17, 2021 at 9:05 pm

Contact Anish: [email protected] | @anish_vasu