As Boston College’s Makayla Dickens sauntered up the court with under three minutes remaining in both teams’ regular-season finale, Kiara Lewis and Taleah Washington stood facing her, arms stretched wide and feet ready to shift in any direction. Down five, Syracuse needed a stop, something it had lacked throughout the fourth quarter.

Dickens moved to the left wing and Lewis went with her before both turned back toward the top of the key. In an instant, Eagles forward Taylor Soule set a screen on Washington while Taylor Ortlepp sprinted from beneath the basket, curling around Soule to take the pass from Dickens. 

From the top of the key, a wide-open Ortlepp sunk a dagger 3, extending BC’s lead to eight. SU’s heads hung as the Boston College bench yelled and waved towels, celebrating what was now a sure win.

Syracuse (15-14, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) struggled to defend the 3 all game, allowing 12 makes in an 88-81 loss to Boston College (18-11, 11-7) in its regular-season finale on Sunday evening in the Carrier Dome — the final game under the iconic bubble-shaped roof that has stood since 1980. With the loss, the Orange secured the eighth seed in the ACC tournament and will play at 2 p.m. on Thursday against Virginia in Greensboro, North Carolina.

“They made 12 (3s), nine of them were probably wide-open,” Gabrielle Cooper said. “I’d probably say all 12 of them were wide-open, we were just losing shooters.”

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It took just 63 seconds for SU head coach Quentin Hillsman to use his first timeout. The Orange’s defense, particularly in transition, was nonexistent to open Sunday’s game, and the Eagles took advantage.

The visitors nailed wide-open 3s on each of their first three possessions of the game, forcing Hillsman to yank Syracuse off the court. Out of the timeout, Cooper clanked a 3 off the rim, BC’s Marnelle Garraud rebounded and immediately found Ortlepp alone on the other end of the court for another wide-open bucket. Less than 80 seconds in, the Orange’s deficit was 11.

“We had a lot of blown assignments,” Hillsman said. “Our defense in transition, we were playing unsettled.”

On the ensuing possession, Emma Guy snuck behind Amaya Finklea-Guity, the “anchor” of Syracuse’s full-court press, and caught another football pass from the opposite end of the court for an easy layup. The Carrier Dome crowd, which was energetic and loud just minutes earlier, had fallen silent.

Then Syracuse didn’t allow a basket for the next two-plus minutes and clawed to within single digits. The last five minutes of the quarter saw a barrage of long balls drop in from both teams, leading to the highest-scoring first quarter of the Orange’s season. Emily Engstler and Brooke Alexander accounted for four of five SU 3s while three different Eagles were on target from deep. The teams combined for 12 3s in the opening quarter.

Alexander, a graduate transfer who came into Sunday with 14 points on the season, sparked Syracuse’s immediate resurgence. She hit two 3s in the span of a minute, one from each corner. After the second, Alexander threw her hands in the air in celebration with a stone-cold look on her face. When Engstler connected from long range on the following possession, the Eagles’ lead was cut to three.

“I just told them to calm down and relax and play the game,” Hillsman said he told SU after falling behind early. “Because at that point, we got 35 minutes left in the game at least.”

In the second quarter, the pace slowed down. Both teams opted for looks inside and combined to attempt just six 3s, making two. SU ran its offense through Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi, who scored the home team’s first nine points of the quarter. The redshirt sophomore routinely got position down low and bested BC’s Guy with her size and power. A Lewis free throw with 1:09 remaining in the half gave the Orange their first lead of the game.

Following halftime, the sides traded baskets and neither could build a sustainable lead. Boston College’s first three made shots of the third quarter were negated by SU makes on the ensuing possession. Neither team held a lead of more than three points and the game was tied seven different points of the quarter. The Orange’s only lead in the third, coming from a Cooper 3, was canceled out by a Cameron Swartz deep ball just 22 seconds later.

That was the last time SU had the lead. Sloppy defense, missed shots and a technical foul issued to Hillsman with 48 seconds remaining dug Syracuse a hole it could not climb out of. The Eagles shot 7-for-10 from the field and 8-for-14 from the free-throw line in the final quarter to avoid dropping below the Orange in the ACC tournament seeding.

“I can’t get the T with 48 seconds left in the game, down four, with the ball on our baseline,” Hillsman said. “You know, at that point forward, we score that’s a one-possession game, it’s totally different.”

After more than a month of wondering when Syracuse’s hopes for an at-large tournament bid would end, Hillsman and the Orange have accepted their reality. If SU wants to avoid missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2012, it must win the ACC tournament. 

“Our goal now moving forward is to go down there and win the whole thing,” Hillsman said. “We’ve beaten the top teams in this conference, so we gotta go down there and play that way.”

Published on March 1, 2020 at 6:20 pm

Contact David: ddschnei@syr.edu