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Women's basketball

Syracuse drops to No. 9 Florida State on road, 62-52, despite solid defense

By Josh Hyber

Alexis Peterson stripped Florida State guard Brittany Brown and sprinted down the court for a semi-contested layup. The shot missed, and the Seminoles raced the other way in transition.

Moments later, FSU guard Leticia Romero pulled up and made a jump shot to give the Seminoles a 10-point lead at the 15:58 mark of the second half.

It was a theme all night for SU: play tough defense — the Orange forced 21 turnovers – but fail to convert on the offensive end. No. 25 SU (15-7, 5-4 Atlantic Coast) shot 29.9 percent from the field on Monday night at the Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee, Florida, and lost to No. 9 Florida State (21-2, 8-1), 62-52.

“We just missed some easy shots. I thought we had some easy looks and we just missed,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “We had a lot of layups that we didn’t take advantage of.”

Syracuse played Florida State evenly in the second half, as both teams scored 34 points in the final period. But the Orange was outscored 28-18 in the first half, when it shot just 19.4 percent.



Syracuse power forward Taylor Ford hit a 3 — where she shot 3-of-10 total — that brought the Orange to within three at 39-36 with 11:37 to go in regulation.

But that’s as close as the Orange came. FSU’s Maegan Conwright hit a driving layup to give the Seminoles a 41-36 lead with 10:42 to play. After two offensive rebounds, Shakayla Thomas gave the Seminoles a 48-40 lead with 7:36 remaining.

“We had some opportunities to tie the game up and get close and be a possession away late,” Hillsman said. “But we didn’t make plays to win the game down the stretch.”

Ford then hit another 3 to pull the Orange to within five at 48-43, but Thomas hit another layup to give FSU a 50-43 lead, and then SU’s Cornelia Fondren fouled out with 6:03 left.

After two Diamond Henderson free throws cut the deficit to 51-45, a Brianna Butler offensive foul and a Morgan Jones 3 put FSU in front 56-45, delivering a dagger to the Orange’s hopes of an upset.

“We shot 18 percent in the first half and in the second half we shot 40 percent,” Hillsman said. “I thought that was the game. It was 34-34 in the second half and we lose by 10.”





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