South Orange, NJ - The spirit was willing but the size, too difficult to overcome. Among the Four Factors , offensive rebounding told the story of Syracuse narrowly defeating Seton Hall 70-66 at Walsh gymnasium on Sunday afternoon.
The OREB mark saw Syracuse enjoy a 59-49% advantage. Looking at the distribution of plays you can see the Orange had the extra opportunities. And used them. Plays are calculated as:
FGA + (FTA * .475) + TO
The game breakdown:
Syracuse 89
Seton Hall 73
The Hall led .90 to .73 in plays per possession. Usually an advantage of that margin spells victory. When you pound the boards as Syracuse did you get extra chances through offensive rebounding and/or more trips to the line. In basic math numbers Syracuse outrebounded the Hall 47-38 (26-20 on the offensive glass). The Orange shot 17 of 22 from the line in contrast to Seton Hall's 5 of 11. Simply, winning the battle of the backboard afforded extra opportunities, or plays, as well as chances to draw fouls and get to the line.
The overall game efficiency saw both teams eclipse 100.
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Possessions
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Offensive Efficiency
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Syracuse
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63
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111
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Seton Hall
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63
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105
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After trailing by 11 early in the second half the pirates battled back and eventually built a seven point lead of their own with just under eight minutes to play. According to coach AnneDonovan it was the Hall staples of defense and getting out in transition that changed the game. On their end, Syracuse went through a stretch of abandoning the inside game and settling for jump shots.
Jasmine crew, pacing the pirates with 19 points, found the touch on the perimeter. Terry green, playing well of late, came off the bench to add 11 points. Inside Tajay Ashmeade battled gamely with a 13 points 12 board (9 offensive) effort.
In the stretch the Hall used a lot of clock each possession. Unfortunately it spelled a few shot clock violations and a few other rushed attempts with seconds ticking. It was not an attempt to go all conservative on the offensive end. There was the intention of using time however. "We wanted to run time off the clock," Seton Hall guard Jasmine crew stated. "We have to do a better job of being in better position with 10 seconds to go (in the possession) to get a good shot or if we miss a second chance to run more clock."
Execution in the final minutes was not to Donovan's liking. We competed and were confident for 38 minutes," she said. "The last two minutes we played scared."
In the final analysis Kayla Alexander of Syracuse was a difference maker, especially in those latter minutes. . The 6-4 junior logged 34 minutes scoring 23 points , grabbing 8 rebounds with 7 on the offensive end. Coach Quentin Hillsman also received solid play from Iasia Hemingway (18 points, 6 rebounds) and Elashier Hill with a stat stuffing 14 point, 7 rebound, 6 assist, zero turnovers effort.
Syracuse improves to 13-7 (2-4 Big east). Seton Hall is 7-13 (0-6 in conference). Despite seeing the opportunity for the initial conference win fade in the waning moments, the Hall mindset is positive. The next game is at South Florida on Wednesday. USF defeated Seton Hall by 19 at Walsh Gym eight days ago. The Pirates are excited about the rematch. "They (USF) have improved," Donovan said. "But when we played them we seemed to lack energy. I'll tell you we will go down there and be ready to play."
Among those in attendance. Former Syracuse standout Rafael Addison, Kearnycoach Jody Hill, St. Vincent Academy (Newark) coach Carol Alm, University High School (Newark) Coach Felicia Oliver and Vanessa Watson , the head coach of Shabazz in Newark.