Briana Day strutted toward the Syracuse bench after a timeout with her eyes peered into an almost-empty Carrier Dome crowd. The center’s teammates gathered to talk strategy, but Day wandered for a moment near the end of the SU bench. Somewhere she was searching for an answer.

It never came.

On Thursday night at the Carrier Dome, Miami (17-7, 7-4 Atlantic Coast) feasted for 44 points in the paint — many against Day directly — and cruised to an 85-71 victory over No. 23 Syracuse (17-8, 7-5). Though SU’s centers shot 50 percent from the field and missed just one free throw, they combined for seven turnovers and five fouls.

“There’s no way you can win a game giving up 44 points in the paint,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “That’s not a formula to win a basketball game.”

Just 42 seconds into the game, Day had already committed two turnovers — the second of which was a three-second violation that Miami answered with a Suriya McGuire 3-pointer.

Eight minutes later, when Day looked into the stands after her second foul, SU trailed 17-12, and the center had four turnovers that led to five Hurricane points.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Hillsman yelled in the general direction of Day, Taylor Ford and Brianna Butler, before calling for reserve center Bria Day to sub in for her sister.

“I felt I was letting my team down,” Briana Day said after the game.

But a minute later, Hurricanes forward Khaila Prather scored around Bria Day with a move that made the SU center’s headband fly off. Prather scored again a minute later with a strong move, giving Miami a 23-14 lead with nine minutes to go in the half.

Six minutes later, Bria Day corralled rebounds on two Alexis Peterson misses on the same possession, but failed to make a layup put back attempt.

On the ensuing possession, Butler fouled Miami guard Adrienne Motley, putting the Hurricanes guard on the free-throw line. But thinking possession had changed in SU’s favor, Day headed up-court to play offense.

“Bria, come on!” Hillsman yelled.

“My b,” the center responded, putting her head down and rushing to her position in the paint.

Day was taken out moments later and replaced by SU’s third-string center, Amber Witherspoon. The Hurricanes took advantage of the freshman, scoring its final four points of the half with two easy layups from Erykah Davenport.

Miami head coach Katie Meier said after the game that the Hurricanes ran a lineup with two post players for “maybe two minutes,” but spaced the floor with multiple four-guard lineups, allowing room for its centers inside. The coach also attributed its 49 percent field goal percentage on Briana Day being in foul trouble.

Day made four free throws early in the second half to chip at UM’s lead but, once again, the miscues and mistakes outshined any positive plays from the SU centers.

“We can’t have 16 turnovers and (Briana) has five of them,” Hillsman said. “That’s not acceptable. She has to do a better job.”

As a sign of the night that was, Day missed Syracuse’s second free throw with 2:54 left in regulation, all but putting the game out of reach with the Orange trailing by nine.

And with SU struggling mightily with its post defense, that’s as close as SU would come.

“They were just walking in the paint and turning around and shooting layups,” Hillsman said. “It really wasn’t anything too tricky … We’re in the best conference in the country. If you give any post player in this conference that deep a catch, they’re going to make shots.”

Published on February 12, 2015 at 9:20 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu