Quentin Hillsman’s thoughts drifted to the big picture.

Following a deflating one-point loss at the buzzer to conference doormat Cincinnati, the Syracuse head coach went from dissecting his team’s performance on the boards to addressing its bleak outlook for the remainder of the season.

‘It’s very easy now to just pack it in,’ Hillsman said. ‘That’s the easy thing to do. That’s the wrong thing to do. That’s what we’re not going to do.

‘We’re going to continue to practice hard. We’re going to continue to play as hard as we can play and do everything we can do to win basketball games.’

With eight games left in the regular season, Syracuse is at a crossroads. The Orange has watched its NCAA tournament hopes all but vanish with nine losses and zero quality wins through its first 22 games. Hillsman acknowledged the disappointing start in mentioning the possibility for his team to crumble down the stretch, but he also remained adamant SU would not allow that to happen.

The Orange (13-9, 2-6 Big East) has its first chance to show that resilience and set the tone for the end of the year against Providence (12-9, 4-4) in Rhode Island at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Following a 41-point blowout loss to powerhouse No. 3 Connecticut and that dramatic last-second defeat to the Bearcats, SU has reached its low point this season. And if the Orange wants to make a postseason run, it has to improve in every phase of the game.

Last Wednesday’s lesson was in defense.

The Huskies ran the Orange off the Carrier Dome floor with a barrage from the 3-point line. UConn went 12-of-25 (48 percent) from beyond the arc, including 8-of-13 to blow open the game in the second half.

SU forward Iasia Hemingway said the team spent ‘a good hour’ on Thursday breaking down the film of the loss, stopping at each defensive breakdown and turnover to analyze the team’s mistakes.

‘It’s better to see yourself doing it more so than thinking of what you did,’ Hemingway said. ‘So when you see yourself doing it and you know for a fact it wasn’t right, you’re going to think twice about doing it the next time.’

On Saturday, the defense improved, holding Cincinnati to 5-of-23 shooting (21.7 percent) from beyond the arc and making key stops late in the game to key a comeback bid.

But the offensive deficiencies that have hampered the Orange all season appeared again.

Cincinnati used the same defensive game plan countless others have employed against SU. The Bearcats stayed compact in the paint to take away the inside game the Orange heavily relies on.

In the first half, Hemingway caught the ball at the left wing to set up the high-low with center Shakeya Leary. But Leary was fronted on the low block and Hemingway couldn’t get the ball to her. Holding the ball, she looked to Leary twice before finally throwing it out to Elashier Hall, who missed a 3-pointer from the left wing.

‘With me, personally, I just feel like they’re always coming at us,’ Hemingway said. ‘So we just got to be smart and know when to pass it and how to pass it.’

Other times, Hemingway settled for a pull-up jumper on the wing after taking a dribble and deciding it was her only option. Though Syracuse saw many possessions end in the same frustrating fashion, Hillsman said he was pleased with the shot selection overall.

And though the Orange’s comeback in the final two minutes fell short thanks to an off-balance pull-up jumper from the foul line by Cincinnati’s Bjonee Reaves, SU guard Carmen Tyson-Thomas refused to assess the big picture.

The loss was tough to take, but Tyson-Thomas said it wouldn’t change the team’s mindset heading into its game with the Friars on Tuesday.

‘I think we’re going to do what we do regardless,’ Tyson-Thomas said. ‘So, I mean, we’re going to rebound and we’re going to make shots. We’re going to score high-low. We’re going to get the ball into Kayla (Alexander). We’re going to get the ball into Iasia. We just got to continue to do what we do at Syracuse.

‘And we’re going to keep playing basketball.’

rjgery@syr.edu

Published on January 30, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu