PISCATAWAY, N.J. – As head coach Quentin Hillsman stepped onto the court at the Louis Brown Athletic Center, he thought he had the perfect game plan to upset No. 4 Rutgers – shut down the post and let the third worst 3-point shooting team in the Big East shoot 3-pointers.

The Orange wanted to clog the lane with its 2-3 zone defense to take away the post presence of Rutgers, resulting in more open looks from beyond the arc.

The strategy didn’t exactly go as planned. Rutgers shot 46 percent from deep for a 64-49 win over Syracuse in front of a sellout crowd of 8,079.

‘You can’t say anything,’ Hilsman said. ‘Just keep on believing in the gameplan

because you know, what if they miss like the last seven of them, we’re having a different press conference.’

Senior Matee Ajavon, along with Brittany Ray on her birthday, combined for seven of Rutgers’ 10 3-pointers. The duo’s 7-for-12 (58 percent) shooting from deep also bookended a run with five minutes remaining in the first half Syracuse was never able to respond to.

Hillsman wanted to shut down the scoring inside, and force Rutgers, 13th in the Big East in 3-point field goals made, to shoot from long range.

But Rutgers, which averages four made 3-pointers per game, kept hitting its shots, beating the zone defense. The Scarlet Knights shot 10-of-22 from 3-point range.

With 5:13 left before halftime, SU obtained its first and what would be its only lead of the game, 18-16. The following possession, Rutgers tied the game, and Syracuse didn’t have an answer of its own as Erica Morrow, who had a game-high 15 points, missed a 3-pointer.

The rebound was grabbed by Essence Carson, who dribbled up the court, and with the 2-3 zone constricting around center Rashidat Junaid, Carson found Ajavon on the left wing. The defense, focused on the post, all but forced Ajavon to take the 3, which hit nothing but net and gave the Scarlet Knights a three-point lead, one they would never relinquish.

Making Rutgers shoot from the outside is still how to beat the No. 4 team in the nation, even though it failed Saturday, Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer said. Stringer thought the execution by the Orange was flawless, but for some reason the shots were just falling.

‘We are not a 3-point shooting team; when we get into that battle we are going lose,’ Stringer said ‘…So (their) idea was right, but today we were hitting shots.’

The Scarlet Knights managed only 16 points in the paint, and Kia Vaughn, who leads the team with six double-doubles, was agitated throughout the game. Even with a four-inch advantage over Syracuse’s Fantasia Goodwin, the center had four points and five rebounds mixed in with three turnovers and three offensive fouls.

‘She’s a physical girl. She’s a great player and I respect her,’ said Goodwin, who along with Vionca Murray, had the assignment of shutting down Vaughn. ‘We just tried to bang her down there. I didn’t have much of a problem though because I play physical too. I mean it was a battle down there.’

But the outside shooting was too much. Any thoughts of a comeback were blown out by Ray when she hit another wide-open 3-pointer with 30 seconds remaining in the first half. The shot gave the home team a 10-point lead and its first double-digit lead of the game.

‘We gave Brittany (Ray) a wide open look on the wing,’ Hillsman said. ‘I thought that was big, we talked about not getting a double-digit deficit against Rutgers because they play so deliberate. … So we knew if we got down by double digits we would have a bit of a problem.’

As the shots kept falling from deep, Hillsman could do nothing but watch in amazement. He said there’s not much he could’ve said to his team when it was executing plays the way he wanted, but the opposing team is still scoring.

‘They average three 3’s a game [sic] and tonight, man, they made 10,’ Hillsman said. ‘When you get into that situation where you game plan to pack the lane and keep them off the glass and they make 10 3’s, when they only average three, they’re probably going to beat you.’

mibonner@syr.edu

Published on March 2, 2008 at 12:00 pm