With a two-on-one advantage at the basket, Rachel Coffey picked up her dribble and threw an off-target jump pass to her right to La’Shay Taft.

Syracuse appeared to botch a golden opportunity on the fast break to cut St. John’s lead to five — what would have been the smallest deficit since the Red Storm jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first three minutes of the game.

But Taft calmly gathered the loose ball by the baseline, dribbled with it out to the wing and drilled a 3-pointer with the Red Storm still filtering back on defense. The shot brought the entire SU bench to its feet, prompted a fist pump from head coach Quentin Hillsman and extended its scoring run to 10-0.

‘I’m working hard and Coach (Hillsman) never told me to stop shooting,’ Taft said. ‘So I just keep shooting good shots and eventually they fall.’

Taft’s big shot gave SU all the momentum with just more than seven minutes remaining, slicing its deficit to four points. But the Orange’s control of the game was short-lived as it couldn’t put together a complete performance in a 70-58 loss to St. John’s Wednesday night.

While Syracuse closed the gap to single-digits multiple times, it was never able to get closer than four as its post players and guards rarely clicked at the same time. When they did, the results were impressive as the Orange ripped off 10 unanswered points to make it a game late in the second half.

SU (12-6, 1-3 Big East) will try to find that scoring balance and efficiency on offense against No. 18 Georgetown (13-4, 2-2) at noon on Sunday in Washington, D.C.

‘I am going to continue to do the best I can to prepare our basketball team to win basketball games and we’re going to keep demanding a certain level of play from our players,’ Hillsman said. ‘Right now, we’re just not clicking on all cylinders.’

The exception came during the 10-0 run, starting with Kayla Alexander’s layup at the 10:02 mark and ending with St. John’s guard Da’Shena Stevens’ free throw nearly four minutes later.

During the inspired comeback, Alexander and Taft combined to score all 10 points for SU, giving the Orange threats on the inside and outside for the first time all game.

In the first half — with Alexander neutralized by constant double teams — guard Shanee Williams stepped up to key Syracuse’s first rally of the night.

With SU trailing 21-10, Williams darted into the lane with a quick crossover and finished a runner. On the Orange’s next possession, Williams gave a sharp jab step to freeze her defender, drove to the basket and dropped off a perfect wraparound pass from midair to Troya Berry for a layup.

A visibly confident Williams pulled up in transition a minute later, swishing the jumper to cut the SJU lead to six. The junior guard held her follow through for a couple seconds, giving SU some life and keeping it close despite being thoroughly outplayed in the first 20 minutes.

‘I was surprised we were only up by 12 at half because I mean the way that we played and the way that I felt things had gone,’ SJU head coach Kim Barnes Arico said, ‘I came in at halftime and I said, ‘I feel like we should be up even more than we are.”

Barnes Arico and St. John’s could have used a bigger cushion as Alexander solved the SJU defense and dominated down low.

But Williams, Coffey and Taft combined to go 0-of-6 from the field to start the second half as Alexander carried the load. During one stretch, the center scored 14 of the Orange’s 16 points.

The scoreless streak for the SU backcourt ended when Taft came down in the open floor off a steal, made a hesitation dribble at the foul line and blew by the defender for easy left-handed layup.

As Williams did in the first half, Taft found her rhythm attacking the basket.

‘I think not going out there and shooting a 3 first and getting (in) a groove by shooting a layup or a pull-up or something, gets me in a better groove of playing,’ Taft said.

Another drive set up an Alexander three-point play. Then came her big 3-pointer to move SU within four.

But six straight free throws by St. John’s killed the comeback. And Taft and the Orange were left knowing they didn’t do enough to earn a conference victory.

‘It feels great just being able to help my team and get closer to coming back and winning, but we fell a little short,’ Taft said. ‘But it feels good overall.’

rjgery@syr.edu

Published on January 14, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu