Good to see you at the game and so glad got to see a Nova win that we needed desparately.
Nova is always frustrating and excruciatiing at times for me to watch, but this one took the cake. Not just a half, but all of regulation, through one overtime, into the second overtime and the third. Never able to pull away from Cuse but not letting them extend a lead either. A big, big win that seemed destined not to happen.
Coach Hilsman obliged once again in zoning us and we had a lot of good ball movement in the first half and scored enough points to offset the unstoppable inside game from Syracuse. Taylor Holman had some problems early on in defending against the Cuse bigs and gave way to Emily Leer. However, Syracuse kept getting the ball into the lane for easy 3-5 foot shots or layups and didn't shoot much from the outside at all. We jumped out to a 10-7 lead two baskets by Laura Sweeney wrapped around three pointers by Lauren Burford and Rachel Roberts. Syracuse then asserted itself inside and ran out to a 25-18 lead and things didn't look good. A three from Sweeney, 2 consecutive short shots from Holeman and another three from Sweeney and we were up 28-27 with 4:15 to go in the half. Cuse recovered to go up by three, but a Devon Kane drive for a layup got us to within one and Sweeney's shot just before the buzzer bounced out to end the half down 31-30. Sweeney had 12 in the half on 5-7 shooting.
The second half was more antacid time. Two quick inside baskets put Cuse up by 5 again but we ran off 9 straight to go up 39-35 with a Leer three, four foul shots from Sweeney wrapped around a Sweeney layup. The Orange responded with four straight to go up by 1 at the 11 minute mark and from then on no team could get more than two points up with five ties and five lead changes to end the half. Sweeney's layup put us up by 2 with 4 minutes to go, Kayla Alexander immediately responded with a layup and one foul shot to put Cuse up by 1 with 3 to go. Sweeney answered with a short jumper at the 2 minute mark to put Nova up by 1. A Cuse three put them up by 2 at 52-50 with 1:40 to go. Kane then missed a three with Leer rebounding, Sweeney missed a three but got her own rebound, then Kane missed another three with 43 seconds left and Cuse got the rebound. After looking to run down the clock and then go inside, Cuse fumbled the ball out of bound under the basket with 11 seconds to go. Kane took the inbounds pass and worked her way upcourt through the press. With a slight hesitation she then shot down the lane for a game tying layup with less than 2 seconds left to finish regulation at 52-52. Sweeney and Leer both finished regulation with 4 fouls.
Roberts got us going with a three ball to start overtime, but then Leer fouled out, with Alexander making one free throw. Taylor Holeman then returned to the game. Kane made one of two free throws at the other end and Holeman followed with a layup to put us up 58-53 with three minutes to go, but a layup at the 1 minute mark and a tremoundous three ball under pressure at the 11 second mark knotted the game at 58 all. After calling a time out with 7 seconds to go, a great in-bounds play gave Sweeney the ball under the basket but her layup rimmed out.
Cuse scored first in the second overtime, but Roberts answered with a three, but two foul shots put Cuse up by 1 again. A three by Kane got us up by two; a layup and a foul shot got Cuse up by 1, followed by a short shot to push the Cuse lead to 67-64 at the 1:25 mark. Roberts immediately answered with a three ball to tie at 67. A missed Cuse shot and Holeman rebound at 48 seconds gave us a shot at the lead, but Roberts short shot near the shot clock buzzer was off the mark. Syracuse went right to the hoop with the ball and missed two layups to keep the game even after the second overtime.
Syracuse missed two opportunities to score and Nova once before Roberts broke the deadlock with two foul shots at the 3:46 mark. Holeman then got a layup on a great feed from Lauren Burford to put us up 71-67. Alexander followed up a missed layup with a putback to get Cuse back to 71-69 at 2:58, but Kane then hit two foul shots and Burford got a layin off of a Roberts feed and all of the sudden we were up 75-69 with 2 minutes to go. Alexander immediately scored and was fouled and made the freebie to cut the lead in half. A clutch shot by Sweeney put us up 77-72 at 1:24, but Cuse immediately responded with a three ball to close to 77-75 with less than a minute to go. After calling a time out with about 7 seconds on the shot clock, Nova was not able to get a good shot off and Cuse pushed the ball up the court firing up a three ball with seven seconds left that was rebounded by Kane who was immediately fouled with five seconds left. Kane couldn't close it out, missing the front end of the one and one, Syracuse rebounding and racing up the court for a final missed three pointer to leave Nova the winner at 77-75.
The final basket by Sweeney gave her a career high 29 for the game (11-20, 5-5 from the line) to go along with 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks and 2 steals. Tremendous effort in the overtimes defending without fouling out, playing an incredible 52 minutes. Roberts had 20 points with 6 threes, playing 51 minutes. Kane a pedestrian 10 points on 3-7 shooting, but all three were huge. Holeman, despite her early problems, returned to deliver in the overtime periods, charged with denying the ball to Alexander and doing a great job, getting 9 rebounds, scoring 8 on 4-8 shooting and logging 32 minutes. Gut check for a lot of players in this game.
This was only the second three OT game in Big East history and I believe only the second in Nova history. We lost to St. Joes in 2009 in an incredibly inept contest in which no one could score for 55 minutes. The win puts us in good shape for the Big East tourney if we can dispose of Providence on Monday night. A Nova win and a DePaul loss to St Johns would give us the sixth seed, a bye for the first round and beatable opponent for Saturday. The sixth spot would also keep us out of the bracket for Notre Dame or UConn until at least the semi-finals. A win on Monday would also most likely get us an NCAA bid regardless of what we do in the B/E tourney.
Senior night on Monday. Since it does not look like we are going to be in the WNIT this year, this is most likely the last game they will play in the Pavilion.
Added link to Syracuse website for game story, photos, press conference
This post was edited on 3/2 11:46 PM by tpenter
Additional link to Syracuse newpaper website article with lots of photos.
http://photos.syracuse.com/post-standard/2013/03/womens_basketball_syracucse_vs_19.html
This post was edited on 3/3 10:59 AM by tpenter
Syracuse website coverage
