As Quentin Hillsman approached the podium after the biggest win in his coaching career, he let out a long sigh of relief.

His Syracuse women’s basketball team had just blown out Penn State, 72-53, and the weight of a 14-21 record as head coach seemed to be lifted off his shoulders. It had taken him 38 games as head coach, but he had finally broken through to the next level.

‘This was an awesome, awesome win,’ Hillsman said. ‘…We just did an awesome job. I don’t even know what to say.’

After all, his program has toiled in mediocrity, with one winning season since 1990 and no postseason appearances in the last two.

But Hillsman made it clear that this team is different. Syracuse (6-1) dominated the entire 40 minutes of Thursday night’s victory in front of 514 at the Carrier Dome. It jumped out to an 18-4 lead in the first nine minutes. And it would continue to pile on from there, finishing with three players totaling at least 15 points, led by Nicole Michael with 16.

Penn State (6-3) came into the game four days removed from an 86-84 shocker over then-No. 17 Duke, and had upset No. 20 Pittsburgh earlier in the season. Before yesterday, the Nittany Lions were 16-1 all time against Syracuse, and had not lost to the Orange in 19 years.

But it was clear after the game that this was not the same Syracuse program.

‘I think in the history of this program, we’ve been close a lot of times,’ Hillsman said. ‘I think that right now, with our program, we’ve turned the corner. There have been a lot of great coaches standing at this podium after a lot of games and there have been a lot of great players standing here after a lot of games, but we just turned the corner tonight, and the test is going to be, can we come out the next game and play at this level.’

Syracuse held Penn State at two points for nearly five minutes in the beginning of the game. It utilized runs of 18-2 and 13-4 in the first half to jump out to a 17-point lead at the break. Utilizing a 2-3 zone defense, it held the Lions to 21 percent scoring and forced 21 turnovers. Penn State was held to 53 points, well below its average of 72.4.

The Orange extended its lead in the second half, culminating at the 9:31 mark, when Vionca Murray was fouled as she scored a layup, causing an eruption from the bench, and even forcing a smile from Hillsman. After making the free throw, SU was up by 29, its largest lead of the night.

Hillsman refused to take any of the credit for his team’s win, deflecting all of the accolades to his players. He refused to admit any satisfaction out of the fact that his coaching debut was a 25-point loss to the same Nittany Lions team. All he would acknowledge was that there was no comparison between last year and this year.

‘Last season, we were banged up,’ Hillsman said. ‘You can’t compare that. But I just knew that the key is recruiting, the key is getting the best players on the floor, and I think we’ve done that and our program is going in the right direction.’

Michael, who led the team in scoring last year as it went 9-20, agreed with her coach that this team bears little resemblance to the one from a year ago.

‘Last year was a different team than this year, obviously,’ Michael said. ‘We had a great recruiting class, great scorers that came in. And we just wanted to play as a team.

‘I mean, we thought about it, and when we played North Carolina, we weren’t really playing as a team. It was our second game of the season, and we thought about it, and coming out and beating Penn State was a big win for us. And we just know that if we play as a team, we’ll win.’

Hillsman was clear that his team has shown it has the potential to qualify for the postseason. And the young coach could not contain his enthusiasm after the game in which he knew he had finally made the statement he needed to make.

When asked if it was the biggest win in his coaching career, he responded immediately.

‘No question, no question,’ he said. ‘I tell you, you know we just go into every game and we prepare like crazy. I think that we did a very good job of getting them ready to play. And they did a very good job of focusing on what we needed to do.’

Published on December 7, 2007 at 12:00 pm