Iasia Hemingway received a pass at the high post and turned to square her shoulders with the basket. Down one, Hemingway drove from the right elbow to her left.

It’s been the staple of the Syracuse offense all year, so the play made sense with the team’s season hanging in the balance.

But she met a Toledo defender in the paint, and they collided. The referee blew his whistle for a charging foul, and Hemingway became the second SU starter to foul out. Toledo was 8.1 seconds away from a victory.

‘That’s tough because when you have her drive into the lane, they slide over and get the charge,’ Hillsman said in a phone interview after the game. ‘It was a bang-bang call, and she just tried to be aggressive and get to the basket.’

Toledo made two free throws, and Rachel Coffey missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer. And with that, the Rockets (27-8) completed their crawl back from a 12-point halftime deficit to beat Syracuse 71-68 in front of a Toledo season-high crowd of 5,001 in Savage Arena. The Rockets moved onto the Women’s National Invitation Tournament’s final four and ended the Orange’s season in the process.

Syracuse (25-10), a team many thought were snubbed from the NCAA tournament, led 38-26 at the half. The Orange dominated much of that half, shooting 54 percent and pounding the ball inside to Kayla Alexander. The All-Big East first-team center finished with 17 points and eight rebounds.

Her success inside also opened up the outside shooting game, where Erica Morrow took advantage. Morrow, battling a knee injury that kept her out of the WNIT first-round game, scored 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting.

‘They were really going underneath screens on her and kind of playing right to her strong spots on the floor,’ Hillsman said. ‘So she got into a little bit of a groove.’

But in the halftime locker room, Toledo head coach Tricia Cullop made a change. She said in a postgame interview with Toledo’s official athletic site that she implemented a press in the second half that the Rockets practiced for just 15 minutes a few days prior to the game.

Hillsman said the Rockets defense tightened up inside.

‘They just did a good job second half when we got the ball to the high post of just sitting down in Kayla’s lap,’ he said.

But Syracuse still led 50-39 with 14:25 to go. From there, everything went the Rockets’ way, especially for Naama Shafir. The guard finished with a team-high 22 points, including a 3 to tie the game at 58.

Everything Syracuse did came undone. Soon enough, SU and Toledo went to overtime tied at 62. It was the first overtime game of the season for Syracuse.

‘They made some plays down the stretch, and we missed some shots that they wish they could have back,’ Hillsman said. ‘And that was the game.’

Still, the Orange came out inspired for overtime. On consecutive possessions, Alexander made shots, giving the Orange a 68-66 lead with 2:13 to play. But then Andola Dortch got to the free-throw line for Toledo, drawing a foul on Morrow.

The foul was Morrow’s fifth. The senior left the floor with Syracuse up two, but SU never scored again.

‘We were in good shape,’ Hillsman said. ‘We were ahead, and we were doing things. We needed to take care of business and win the basketball game. We missed a couple shots in the lane, and we fouled them twice.’

And after Hemingway fouled out, Hillsman inserted a different group of players meant to foul Toledo. With Morrow and Hemingway gone and Tasha Harris and Alexander with four fouls apiece, Hillsman’s lineup looked like this: starter Elashier Hall, sixth man Carmen Tyson-Thomas and bench players Coffey, Troya Berry and La’Shay Taft. It was the first time on the court in the game for Coffey and Taft.

Shafir made two free throws with seven seconds to play. Coffey managed to beat her defender to get a decent running look from the top of the arc, but her one and only shot of the night clanked high off the back rim as the buzzer sounded. Some of the record crowd stormed the court.

Just like that, Syracuse’s season was over.

‘We just can’t put ourselves in situations where we don’t have our best players on the floor,’ Hillsman said. ‘Obviously with (Morrow) not on the floor, it was difficult taking our point guard off the floor.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

 

Published on March 27, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr