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With minutes to play in a first half that saw Syracuse shoot 9% from 3-point range, ESPN analyst Debbie Antonelli pointed out that the Orange had missed 20 shots yet recorded only five offensive rebounds.

On the ensuing trip down the floor for the Seminoles, River Baldwin maneuvered around Emily Engstler, tipped the ball over the head of Taleah Washington and laid it in with ease on the left block. The Orange pushed right back down the court, earning Faith Blackstone two chances at the free-throw line. Her first rimmed out, and her second clanged off the rim into the waiting arms of Baldwin, who set up the Seminoles for one more basket before halftime.

While Florida State only outrebounded Syracuse 39-33 on Thursday, it compounded dreadful first-half shooting for the Orange and kept SU from threatening in the second. Syracuse (11-5, 8-5 Atlantic Coast) dropped its fourth of five road games in a 67-52 loss to Florida State (7-5, 6-5). During that span, the Orange have been outrebounded by a combined 32. The latest defeat on the glass came courtesy of an FSU in the bottom third of the ACC in both offensive and defensive rebounds per game.

“That was a huge point of emphasis for us, was to be able to box them out,” Florida State head coach Brooke Wyckoff said, “They have amazing rebounders in Emily Engstler and Kamilla Cardoso, and they’re all so long.”

Rebounding had the potential of hindering Syracuse entering conference play. In three non-conference games, the Orange had an advantage of +3. Its opponents were Stony Brook (10-4), Penn State (8-8) and Division-II Lincoln.

During a Dec. 1 conference on Zoom, head coach Quentin Hillsman didn’t seem too concerned with SU’s early troubles on the glass. The Orange needed to do a better job tracking down the “50-50 balls,” he said. As the season progressed, Syracuse’s desire for those loose balls hasn’t wavered. But it’s the Orange’s inability to create second-chance points early in games that’s downed the team recently.

In the opening minutes in Tallahassee, Florida, Syracuse got off to a quick enough start that rebounds weren’t a factor. The Orange surged out to a 9-2 lead, and all four buckets were first-chance scores. Meanwhile, Florida State started one-of-eight from the floor, prompting Wyckoff to call for a timeout once Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi’s 3-pointer extended the lead to seven.

“In that timeout, we got an earful telling us what we needed to correct,” FSU guard Bianca Jackson said. “And we did it, so that was good.”

The Seminoles’ corrections weren’t instantly apparent, but Syracuse aided FSU with an inability to lengthen the lead. All but two of SU’s possessions over the final five minutes of the first quarter spanned beyond one shot. Both second chances were generated by Engstler, but Taleah Washington proceeded to shoot a deep 3 the first time and miss. The redshirt junior tried to do it herself the second time and failed the putback. In a quarter in which FSU shot just 31%, it soon found itself ahead by three.

The following frame saw turnovers doom Syracuse like shooting had in the first 10 minutes, but rebounding allowed Florida State to capitalize. After Amaya Finklea-Guity secured Syracuse’s final of two second-quarter offensive rebounds with 4:43 to play, she missed the layup. Baldwin denied the center a third chance, and Jackson finished a layup in the frontcourt.

Kiara Lewis’ five rebounds were third-most on the Orange. Courtesy of FSU Athletics

Baldwin then poked it away from Tiana Mangakahia, creating another Seminole fast break. Two more Syracuse turnovers allowed FSU to push what was a tight game moments ago to a 12-point lead. After Blackstone’s free throw got SU within 11, Valencia Myers won position on Cardoso and got a second chance for State’s Tiana England. The freshman was slow readjusting to England, who buried a jumper in the paint.

Kiara Lewis tried to will the deficit back within single digits, but Baldwin’s sequence on the glass sent the Seminoles into halftime up 14, and SU perpetuated its first-half struggles with shooting and keeping possession of the basketball to keep from getting much closer.

“We had it at eight (in the fourth quarter), and we got a steal at eight and mishandled the ball out of bounds,” Hillsman said, “And those are the things we need to do to get back into these games. At the end of the day, on the road you lose a game, you got to try to go home and take care of home.”

For the fourth game in a row, Syracuse fell well short of Hillsman’s goal of 20 offensive boards for each game. When the Orange shoot over 40% like they had in a win over Wake Forest, the ineffectiveness on the glass isn’t as glaring. But when SU barely shot over 30% against the Seminoles, more than 10 offensive rebounds needed to materialize if Syracuse had a chance.

And with a 8-5 conference record and No. 3 Louisville looming on Sunday, SU’s preseason aspirations of both an ACC and national crown appear more distant than ever.

Published on February 12, 2021 at 12:54 am

Contact Tim: tnolan@syr.edu