Syracuse players rose from the bench time and time again in anticipation of a made 3-pointer. After attempts repeatedly clanked off the backboard, rimmed out or missed the hoop altogether, the group sat back down in disappointment.

Brianna Butler’s signature step-backs weren’t falling. An Isabella Slim right-corner 3 fell well short of the basket. In total, SU missed 33-of-40 shots from beyond the arc.

But despite the poor outside shooting, the No. 21 Orange (6-1) cruised to a 61-39 victory over Penn State (1-6) as part of the Atlantic Coast Conference-Big Ten Challenge in the Carrier Dome on Thursday night. Butler was the team’s second-leading scorer with 14 points, but finished 4-of-19 from beyond the arc and was at the forefront of a group of 3-point shooters that struggled against the Nittany Lions.

“We actually should have taken like 55 3s,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “I thought that Brianna Butler passed up about 10 3s. She should have taken 30 of them.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I’m being really serious.”

With 8:12 left in the first half and the Orange leading 21-15, Diamond Henderson rose up for a 3 opposite the SU bench. Syracuse’s injured guard Brittney Sykes stood and yelled, “Give me one! Give me one!”

The shot missed.

Two minutes later, Butler attempted a 3 from the left wing. The entire Syracuse bench rose again in unison, but the shot back-rimmed. Less than a minute later, the small forward missed another 3.

“It can be (discouraging) when you’re not seeing the ball go through the net,” Butler said. “But you’ve just got to continue to be positive. And Coach is always telling me to shoot the ball more, and so are my teammates.”

It wasn’t only Butler, though, that was struggling from deep, as Slim hasn’t exactly lived up to what Hillsman expects of her in a starting role. The head coach said Wednesday that Slim is in the starting five because she’s an immediate threat from deep. But only one time this season has she made a 3-point shot before being subbed out.

On Thursday, she missed a 3-pointer at just more than two minutes in, committed a defensive foul on the ensuing possession and was replaced 22 seconds later by Taylor Ford. SU was getting plentiful looks from long range because of the openings in the Nittany Lions defense, but they just weren’t falling.

“I think our shots from beyond the arc were more coming because we were open,” guard Maggie Morrison said. “Getting shots against a zone, especially 3s, is part of our offense.”

Morrison shot 1-of-5 from deep range — her only make coming on a wild shot that bounced on the top of the backboard before falling through to give the Orange a 44-26 lead six minutes into the second half.

Despite shooting 17.5 percent from deep, Syracuse wasn’t discouraged from shooting more.

“Most of my shots tonight were short,” Morrison said. “But like Bri said, Coach is saying keep shooting them, keep taking them, and it’s nice to Briana (Day) under the basket picking up rebounds and having our backs.”

Toward the end of regulation, SU ditched its up-tempo offense and tried to work out of a set offense. With three minutes to go, SU point guard Alexis Peterson dribbled down the shot clock and fed Butler, who missed another 3.

On the next possession, Peterson found Slim, who had an open 3 on the left wing. Hillsman yelled at her twice to “Shoot the ball”, but Slim instead threw a cross-court pass to Butler, who air-balled a 3 as the shot clock expired.

Luckily for the Orange, it gathered 19 offensive rebounds. The team also converted 10-of-12 free-throws, easing away an otherwise poor shooting performance.

Said Hillsman: “Obviously you don’t want to be 7-of-40 from beyond the arc, but honestly I think we probably passed up 10 or 15 shots beyond the arc that were wide open.”

Published on December 4, 2014 at 11:35 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu