Villanova (16-13, 6-10) scored 14 of the games final 18 points on Monday night at the Pavillion on their way to a 68-60 victory over the Orange. The loss made Syracsue (17-13, 6-10) the No. 12 seed for the Big East tournament. The Orange will play Providence at 12 p.m. on Friday in Hartford, Conn.
Here's three thoughts from SU's loss to Villanova:
1. Defending beyond the arc…
Villanova was able to torch Syracuse with the deep ball. They shot an incredible 53.8 percent on 26 attempts, but cooled down in the second half which gave Syracuse the ability to make a comeback. SU can't get sucked inside trying to help defend post players, or get caught in bad rotations when a team swings the ball because we've seen that hurt them in the past. They got into a big hole on Monday and weren't able to get themselves out of it. Switching up the defense or adjusting to an opponent's hot hand might be a good idea for this team. If they don't adjust, it may be a quick exit from the Big East Tournament.
2. Get big…
SU did an excellent job of getting offensive rebounds in this game. They had a total of 16 offensive rebounds and dominated the glass with 42 in total. The Wildcats had only 29 rebounds and had only five offensive rebounds. How did the Wildcats manage to escape with a victory? Combined with lights out three-point shooting, they defended junior center Kayla Alexander [14] extremely well, limiting her to 15 minutes. In those limited minutes she had four points and four rebounds. Alexander is a key for SU because of her ability to post up and aggressively get to the basket. SU only had Carmen Tyson-Thomas [15] (10 points) and Iasia Hemingway [16] (19 points) scoring in double-digits, making for a one-dimensional offensive attack.
3. Finish when given the chance…
SU didn't seem interested in spoiling a seemingly easy Wildcat victory but SU came out strong in the second half with an 8-3 run. The Wildcats lead of nine at halftime continued to be diminished with strong play from both Hemingway and Tyson-Thomas. SU would soon capture the lead and would soon after extend it to a score of 53-47 with 7:30 remaining. In this type of game SU has to keep the same mentality and continue attacking and getting easy points. Everything started to fall apart at the worst possible time as the Wildcats would score 14 of the final 18 points of the game. Having streaks in a game is a normal, unavoidable trend in basketball, but being able to limit them and play your type of tempo is what you can control. SU wasn't able to do that against the Wildcats.
