As Quentin Hillsman walked over to a group of reporters last Wednesday, he instinctively began to answer questions he assumed were about to be asked. No, he doesn’t think Brianna Butler shoots too much and she should probably shoot even more.

“Our goal is to match (our opponent’s) 3s, even if it takes going 7-for-94,” Hillsman, the Syracuse head coach, said.

On Sunday afternoon in No. 23 Syracuse’s road matchup against Virginia Tech (10-16, 1-12 Atlantic Coast) at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Virginia, the Orange (18-8, 8-5) put that theory to the test. Despite shooting 4-of-26 from downtown, Syracuse ended the game on an 11-0 run and beat the Hokies 59-51.

“We shot the ball awfully in the first half,” Hillsman said. “… But I wasn’t worried, to be honest, because we couldn’t shoot the ball any worse. I thought down the stretch in the second half, we made some plays and made some shots.”

Butler missed two 3-point attempts on the opening possession. Isabella Slim then missed a 3 on the Orange’s next trip down the floor. Butler and Slim both missed 3s a minute later. Two minutes later, Butler missed another 3, and Syracuse started 3-of-19 from the field.

With the game tied at 17 with two minutes to go in the first half, Syracuse missed three 3-pointers, and went into halftime trailing 24-19.

SU shot 0-for-17 from beyond the arc in the first half, which included attempts from six different players.

But to start the second half, Briana Day hit a layup to cut the deficit to 24-21. SU point guard Alexis Peterson knocked down the Orange’s first 3-point field goal of the game, putting SU in front 28-27 with 16:34 to go.

SU guard Cornelia Fondren made a layup to cut a seven point SU deficit to five with 3:57 left and 34 second later, Butler hit her second 3 of the game to bring the Orange to within two. She then made two free throws to cut SU’s deficit to one on the next possession.

And after starting 2-of-12 from 3-point range, Butler connected on a 3 with 1:39 to go in regulation to give the Orange a 53-51 lead, one it wouldn’t relinquish.

“I always keep saying every post game that Brianna Butler has to continue to be aggressive and shoot the ball,” Hillsman said. “She made two big 3s. We ran some stagger screens for her and she stayed aggressive.

“This win was crucial. We had to have it.”

Published on February 15, 2015 at 7:18 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu