With one minute left in the second half, Syracuse center Vaida Sipaviciute received the ball in the paint. SU trailed by one point, the closest it had been in six minutes.

Sipaviciute hadn’t scored in 13 minutes, and Villanova immediately swarmed her with two defenders, just as the Wildcats did for much of the second half. The SU center spun off her defenders and rolled the ball off her fingers. The ball bounced around the rim a brief second and fell through the hoop.

The season-high crowd of 1,304 at Manley Field House erupted and Syracuse survived the last minute to stay ahead for good.

Syracuse narrowly defeated Villanova on Saturday, 45-42, behind the solid post play of Sipaviciute and forward Chineze Nwagbo. Sipaviciute led Syracuse with a career-high 21 points.

‘In practice, all the guards were passing the ball to me a lot,’ Sipaviciute said. ‘I knew I was going to get the ball. If I get the ball, I’m going to shoot it.’

The Orange (11-8, 3-5 Big East) dominated the paint for most of the game. The Syracuse guards consistently fed the post and passed up the 3-point shots the Orange usually rely on.

SU took only six 3-pointers, well under its season average of 15.6 3-pointers, while scoring 32 of its 45 points in the paint.

‘We emphasized (post play) in practice,’ Nwagbo said. ‘Vaida did a good job. She got the ball and finished. That was pretty much our game plan.’

In the first half, the game plan worked to perfection. No matter how hard the Villanova (11-7, 4-3) post players tried to clog the paint, the ball still found its way to Nwagbo or Sipaviciute.

Both Nwagbo and Sipaviciute finished the first half with 11 points. Nwagbo did not score in the second half.

Guard Rochelle Coleman was the only other SU player to make a field goal in the opening half. At the half, the Orange led, 26-20.

‘We had to get to the baseline so they couldn’t shoot lay-ups,’ Villanova center Jana Rediger said. ‘That’s what they were getting us on, the easy lay-ups off the backboard. You’re never going to miss that shot.’

But in the second half, the Wildcats turned up the defensive pressure on the post. The Villanova post players pushed Sipaviciute and Nwagbo out of the paint and forced Syracuse to take more difficult shots.

With the Orange struggling to find an offensive rhythm, Villanova began a frantic comeback. The Wildcats went on a 10-0 run to lead by four with less than 14 minutes left in the second half. When SU finally stopped the run with less than eight minutes left, it was lifeless and seemed to have lost its grip on a game once well in-hand.

‘It’s such a fine line,’ Syracuse head coach Keith Cieplicki said. ‘You want to get it in (the paint), but you want to take what they give you. I thought the decisions were good.’

Syracuse pulled within one after guard Mary Jo Riley sliced through the Villanova defense for a reserve lay-up. Riley’s play gave the Orange the energy it lacked for most of the second half.

After a defensive stop, Sipaviciute awoke from her second half slump to score the clinching basket.

‘They did a good job early getting the ball inside and scoring early,’ Villanova coach Harry Perretta said. ‘Against us, that’s what I would do – pound the ball inside, try to make us go and help and then get your 3-point shooters open.’

Published on January 30, 2005 at 12:00 pm