WBB: SU Remains Undefeated At Home With A Win Over Pitt

By Brittany Ehrlich

Syracuse returned to the Carrier Dome to a season-high attendance of 8,126 people. While the crowd did not break the program record, it did boost the Orange to a 70-52 win.

“We are very happy with the win and it was good to come into the Dome and have a great crowd,” said head coach Quentin Hillsman. “I thought that our university, the support staff and the people that surround our program did an excellent job of getting the Dome pretty packed and we definitely had a home-court advantage in this game. I have to give our girls a lot of credit because they bounced back from a couple road losses and played hard.”

Last year, Syracuse looked to break the attendance record and gathered 11,021 against Notre Dame. There were over 13,000 tickets sold though for the game against Pittsburgh this year. However, SU decided to go with the turnstile count despite the men’s team decision to tally through ticket sales when announcing their crowd attendance.

Before Pittsburgh, Syracuse had played its last two games on the road against the University of Miami and NC State. Those two games also resulted in two losses.

“It was good to play at home,” said Gabrielle Cooper. “It made me feel better and I shot the ball well with confidence.”

Cooper scored 12 points against Pitt, all of which came from behind the arc. In total, Syracuse shot 10 three pointers. Cooper’s three pointers helped push Syracuse to their eleventh game this season with at least ten three-point baskets made.

Cooper is known for her depth of shooting and sometimes she doesn’t even realize how far away she is when she fires.

“I knew a few times I’m deep but that’s when I’m two or three feet from half,” said Cooper. “Most times I don’t realize I’m deep but they say step in… They’re like you’re five steps behind the line and I’m shocked.”

Cooper is one the lone remaining starter from last year. During the press conference, Hillsman spoke about how young this team is and how they were ranked second in most newcomers.

“The five (losses) come from our inexperience,” said Cooper. “We just couldn’t finish out and make plays at the end and couldn’t get the stops we needed. And as we get together and we gel together we’ll get better and have more chemistry.”

Syracuse’s next game is against Clemson on Thursday Jan. 25^th. Clemson is currently 11-9 overall and 1-6 in conference play. Tip off is set for 7 P.M.