Women’s Basketball Dominates Colgate in a 40 Point Victory

By Brittany Ehrlich

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse women’s basketball defeated Colgate in a 40 point victory to remain undefeated on the season. This win was mainly due to the Orange’s dominance on offense.

“The thing that was working us most was just the moving the ball and just getting everyone shots,” Tiana Mangakahia said. “If you look at the stats, most of us had double digits. We were all scoring and making an impact in the game.”

In fact, nine players scored for the Orange including Mangakahia with 13 points. Miranda Drummond led the team with 18 points, followed by Mangakahia, Isis Young with 12 points, and Digna Strautmane with 11 points.

The three pointer has always been a big factor in head coach Quentin Hillsman’s offense, but so far this year Syracuse has struggled with the three. Against Colgate, the Orange knocked down 13 threes.

“Tonight, most of our 3s were uncontested,” Mangakahia said. “He wants us to take those shots. He wants us to have more possession than the team”’

Hillsman believes his team is filled with sharp shooters, and if they get good looks, they are going to go down.

“We had a really good feeling what they were going to do defensive so we got some early looks in the game and that really had our confidence up,” Hillsman said.

Syracuse’s defense was also able to hold the Raiders to only 39 points.

“When we got beat we made sure they didn’t have an easy shot out of it,” Mangakahia said.

Colgate only took eight free throws throughout the night as well due to Syracuse’s composure to not give up fouls.

Hillsman also commended his team on their ability be smart about fouling.

“We did a really good job on not throwing,” he said. “We didn’t want to put them on the free throw. It was critical for us to keep them off the free throw line.”

Even with the 40-point victory, Hillsman did not sit on the bench for a second. He continued to coach throughout the entire game and when asked about his yelling Hillsman saw it differently.

“Yelling is a strong word,” he replied. “I was effectively communicating with them.”

Hillsman also added that it’s his job to coach.

“You got to coach and play the whole game. I wanted to play clean basketball and they deserve to be coached every minute they are out on the field. “

Syracuse offense scored 30 points off turnovers, 17 off second chances and 23 on the fast break.

The Orange face Drexel next Saturday, December 9^th back in the Carrier Dome and look for their 10^th straight win on the season. The Dragons are currently 5-3.