Emily Engstler jump-stopped in transition and threw a pass into the paint. The 3-point shot was open, but this option, involving a Digna Strautmane finish, had worked in recent possessions.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Syracuse needed a spark. Anything to cut into Virginia’s double-digit lead a dismal offensive performance created. But instead, a Virginia Tech defender deflected the ball toward the sideline. Strautmane caught off guard, tripped as the Hokies regained control and raced the other way.

The 3-pointers weren’t falling. Neither were the simple layups. Offensive possessions never morphed against the Cavaliers, and in Sunday’s 57-41 loss to Virginia (9-13, 4-7 Atlantic Coast), Syracuse (10-11, 4-6) suffered its third defeat in four games. The Orange went 2-for-17 (11.8%) from 3 and their leading scorer Kiara Lewis scored two points on 1-for-11 shooting. Forty-one points were the second-fewest it’s scored in a game since 2006 — the year Quentin Hillsman took over as head coach — and the Orange never found a rhythm that threatened the Cavaliers. Three days after a 16-point comeback against the Hokies that temporarily saved SU’s postseason hopes, they slipped further and further away.

“When you let up 57 points and you lose the game,” Hillsman told Brian Higgins after the game, “that’s all about offense and being able to put the ball in the basket.”

The Orange average 68.4 points per game, and aim to keep their opponents under 60, Hillsman said. In past conference games, the problem has come from their defense, which at times has been the worst statistically in the ACC.

In the John Paul Jones Arena, neither team could get much going, but Virginia jumped out to a 6-0 lead and headed into the second quarter up 14-10.

Syracuse again suffered from a scoring drought, this one lasting more than six minutes. It was the same early-scoring problem that plagued the Orange against Virginia Tech when they opened 3-for-3 from the field but didn’t score again until the second quarter.

With 54 seconds left in the opening frame, Teisha Hyman cut behind her UVA defender and corralled a pass from Engstler to snap the stretch. Then Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi blocked a Dani Lawson shot and flung a pass to Hyman, who snuck behind and flipped the ball into the basket as she fell.

That spurt temporarily cut the deficit, but an 11-3 UVA run extended the Cavaliers’ lead to 12 halfway through the second. Against Virginia Tech, Lewis was able to get inside the paint and charge SU’s comeback. On Sunday, the Cavaliers prevented her from “getting downhill” by overloading help defenders into the paint, Hillsman said. She entered halftime scoreless, and the Orange went 1-for-6 in the stretch that ultimately broke open the game.

The UVA game marked one of the road games that Syracuse needs to turn into wins over the final month of the season, its room for error getting smaller and smaller with each loss. The 16-point loss came off the Orange’s comeback win over Virginia Tech in the Carrier Dome, and Hillsman has maintained all season that he believes this is a tournament team. But even before the Virginia loss, Syracuse had the 105th-best RPI, well out of the range of the 64-team tournament.

But little pockets of that aren’t enough to build an NCAA tournament resume, and that continued against the Cavaliers. After Engstler swished a 3-pointer, a turnaround jumper by Willoughby over Strautmane to answer. Ten points during the third quarter and 12 points in the final frame, as Lewis and Engstler finished a combined 5-for-25 from the field.

With 2:21 left, Hyman drove through the paint’s center and rose for a layup. But Kylie Kornegay-Lucas swatted Hyman’s shot away. Then a Lewis 3 rattled out with 42 seconds left. Even when the Orange had an open lane against the Cavaliers, the shots never fell, and Syracuse travels to Boston College on Thursday lacking a win streak since the first week of January.

Published on February 2, 2020 at 6:52 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew