Syracuse women’s basketball point guard Rochelle Coleman frantically brought the ball up court, dodging a sea of pressing Notre Dame defenders. Wherever Coleman went, so went the press.

Even when the Syracuse guard pushed the ball across half-court, Notre Dame’s zone miraculously was there to greet her.

As the shot clock ticked closer to zero, the Syracuse bench yelled at its teammates to shoot the ball. Several times, the Irish defense left Coleman no choice but to heave up a 3-point shot that had little chance of going in.

Forced to play amongst tremendous defensive pressure, SU’s players seemed on different pages Wednesday night at Manley Field House. No. 11 Notre Dame’s defensive pressure strangled the Syracuse offense in a 74-61 win.

‘In the second half, I think we handled (the pressure),’ Coleman said. ‘As the game went on, we got better. In the first half, I was making poor decisions. I need to make better decisions for my teammates.’

SU used the majority of the shot clock trying to find an open shot. With the Irish yielding little room, the Syracuse players frequently hoisted shots with one or more defenders in their faces.The Orange came into last night’s game wanting to slow the tempo down and find open shots at the basket. And for the most part, it succeeded. The Orange equaled its season-average point total of 61 points per game, but it lacked the easy scoring chances to catch up with the Irish in the last five minutes.

‘We wanted to give ourselves the opportunity to take our best shots and I think we did that,’ Syracuse head coach Keith Cieplicki said. ‘We weren’t going to worry about the shot clock. We weren’t going to be in a rush unless we had something good.’

But the Irish didn’t give Syracuse anything at all. Whenever the Orange seemed to mount a comeback, Notre Dame immediately stamped it out.

‘Once we put the defense on them,’ Notre Dame forward Courtney LaVere said, ‘they lost their confidence.’

The Orange still managed to keep the score close despite being outscored in the paint, 40-22. While the Notre Dame post players were scoring, SU could not find open shots inside the Irish zone.

‘We’ve got to take what the defense gives us,’ Cieplicki said. ‘I thought we did a pretty good job going to certain match ups and getting good looks. We’ve got to play to our strengths.’

Syracuse’s strengths were no match for Notre Dame, though. With the shot clock ticking down and the defensive pressure building, the Orange resorted to taking tough outside shots.

While the Irish may be one of the toughest teams in the nation, SU expects its offense to perform, no matter the pressure.

‘We’re not really worried about the shot clock,’ Coleman said. ‘We’re just trying to hit our first available shot.

‘We have to execute our offense – everyone’s going to play tough defense.’

Published on January 19, 2005 at 12:00 pm