Quentin Hillsman could only stare down at the podium as he tried to explain the loss. But the Syracuse head coach had the explanation right in front of him on the box score.

The Orange shot a dismal 22 percent from the field in the first half a number that came back to haunt SU as it tried to mount a comeback in the second half.

‘If you don’t come and compete for 40 minutes, you’re not going to win a basketball game in this league,’ Hillsman said. ‘When you look at the stat sheet and you shoot 22 percent in the first half and you shoot 48 percent in the second half, that’s just not putting two halves together.’

Syracuse (12-6, 1-3 Big East) fell behind early after a brutal start. The Orange missed its first eight shots and never fully recovered in a 70-58 loss to St. John’s (11-6, 3-1 Big East) in front of 811 in the Carrier Dome on Wednesday night. Though the team found life behind SU center Kayla Alexander’s 21 second-half points, every time SU challenged the deficit, the Red Storm came through with an answer to regain momentum and hang on for the win.

The poor shooting percentage Hillsman highlighted after the game was largely the result of Syracuse’s struggles to get on the board early. The crowd stood waiting for SU to make its first field goal of the game early on, but Alexander and forward Iasia Hemingway combined to miss six of the team’s first eight shots, bothered by St. John’s swarming double teams.

Every time Syracuse threw the ball to Alexander in the post, two — sometimes three — defenders were waiting for the center in the paint. Alexander had little room to operate and often had the ball stripped or her shot attempts blocked.

SU didn’t make its first field goal until 5:27 into the game. But from there, Alexander showed how she would have to beat the relentless double teams. She caught the ball on the left block, kept the ball high above the two defenders and fired a quick pass to a cutting Carmen Tyson-Thomas for an easy layup.

Still, Alexander rarely gained solid post position in the first 20 minutes. Oftentimes, she was pushed out into the corner to make her moves. The SU offense couldn’t get into its high-low set, and it showed as Alexander and Hemingway combined to go 0-of-9 from the field in the first half for three points.

‘We felt like we were probably rushing with the double teams coming, not taking our time and just throwing it away,’ Alexander said.

In the second half, the Orange tandem came to life to lead a comeback.

Hemingway scored four points on tough drives to both sides of the basket to open the half and cut the deficit to nine. Then, Alexander scored 17 of SU’s next 20 points, getting the Orange within eight and seven after the Red Storm rebuilt its lead multiple times.

After falling behind by 17 points more than four minutes into the second half, Alexander and Hemingway went to work to energize Syracuse. Hemingway drove sharply into the paint to her left, stopped and fired a jump pass to Alexander, who finished the layup to pull within 42-30.

Shanee Williams jumped up off the bench and clapped enthusiastically, and Hillsman greeted his team with high fives on the court after calling a timeout. Syracuse felt a momentum shift as Alexander found her rhythm.

It continued to grow after Hemingway and Alexander hooked up on the next possession to slice into the lead again. The SU offense was clicking, and the SJU double teams weren’t able to surround Alexander as effectively as the first half.

‘I thought they made it a lot harder for us to double,’ SJU head coach Kim Barnes Arico said. ‘They went from the top and they really dug us out, and she got us so deep that by the time she got the ball, we couldn’t get the double over there.’

After her free throw, Syracuse got within seven with less than eight minutes left, and Orange guard La’Shay Taft hit a 3 to cut the lead to four points.

But St. John’s responded again with six straight free throws to increase its lead back to 10.

A 3-pointer by SJU guard Eugenia McPherson iced the game for the Red Storm, giving it a 61-51 lead with less than two minutes to play.

And Hillsman was left to lament his team’s poor start — leaving a hole too large to overcome — for another conference loss.

‘We got to give two halves of effort to win these basketball games,’ Hillsman said. ‘You can’t come out and not play for the first seven or eight minutes and expect to win these basketball games.’

rjgery@syr.edu

Published on January 11, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu