Hemingway leads Orange past Bulls

The Syracuse women’s basketball team (15-9, 4-6) soared past South Florida to seal a 76-61 win in the Carrier Dome Saturday afternoon. SU senior forward Iasia Hemingway led the Orange with 24 points and tied her career-high with five assists. Also scoring in double figures was junior center Kayla Alexander and junior guard Elashier Hall. They knocked down 17 and 14 points respectively. The Orange’s sophomore guard Rachel Coffey also had a career-best with four steals.

As for the Bulls, their junior guard Andrell Smith led her team with 18 points but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Bulls from dropping their third straight game.

The Orange never trailed in the game and led by as many as 33 with 12 minutes left to go in the game. Head coach, Quentin Hillsman feels that Saturday is an example of how his team needs to perform throughout the rest of the season.

“We have to continue to play hard and be aggressive in the attack,” Hillsman said.

Hemingway knocked down 7 points early in the game. After that, the Orange took a 14-5 advantage. Syracuse had the hot hand; scoring 10 consecutive points to push the lead 34-14 with just 5 minutes remaining in the first half. Alexander scored 5 of the points during the run.

The Orange had a 19-point advantage at the break. It was the team's largest lead at halftime in a Big East conference game since it led Seton Hall 42-21 on Jan. 5, 2010.

Even though the Bulls were struggling throughout the game, they still forced Syracuse into 27 turnovers. USF turned the ball over 20 times and also got outrebounded 46-35 on the boards. The Orange grabbed 28 of those on the defensive end.

There was no turning back for the Orange at this point. Syracuse immediately took the game over by force, going on a 15-2 run which gave them a 54-22 lead with 15 minutes remaining.

The Orange will be back in action on Tuesday, Feb. 7 when it hosts No. 2 Notre Dame in the Carrier Dome. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.