The Orange take a tough loss at the hands of Miami, 71-65
By Adam Cohen
Citrus TV Women’s Basketball Beat Reporter
MIAMI F.L. – Syracuse endured its worst shooting performance in over a month against Miami Thursday night. The Orange shot under 30% from the field for the first time since December 30th against UNC when they shot 21% and only had seven active players on the roster.
Cuse fired up 32 shots from downtown and hit only nine of them. In Sunday’s win over Pittsburgh, they put up the same number of shots, but hit 13 of them. The Orange also shot 40% from the field during that win. It looks like the game against Pittsburgh was an unfortunate anomaly as SU came crashing back down to Earth.
The rebounding also did not get any better for the Orange. Miami outrebounded them 53-36 throughout the course of the game. Rebounding has been a serious issue for the Cuse since the beginning of that six-game losing streak. The math has not been in Syracuse’s favor, it has been outrebounded 401-281 since that game against UNC. The only game they outrebounded their opponent was in a 74-65 loss against Duke in mid-January.
Coach Vonn Read said in a presser on Tuesday, following the Pitt win, that shooting comes and goes, but SU really needs the shooting to come and stay. The Orange have lost two games all season in which they have shot above 40% from the field.
Obviously, you have to score points to win, that’s the name of the game, but if you’re not getting rebounds and giving opposing teams more chances to score or waste clock, you’re not going to win. Same goes for if you’re not taking smart shots, 32 three-point attempts are a lot of shots that are generally considered low probability shots.
Everyone knows this a small ball team, but they have to get nasty. The Orange need to be willing to get in there and fight for rebounds, they need to be willing to fight through the paint and drive to the hoop for a layup.
Syracuse’s next game will come against a conference foe they already put on upset watch earlier this season. Number four ranked Louisville will be coming to the dome this Sunday and tipoff is scheduled for noon. The Orange and Cards will do battle for the first time since Louisville’s 84-71 win in January. Cuse did shoot 48% from the field in that game and tied with Louisville for rebounds 31-31.
acohen11@syr.edu | @A_Cohen6
