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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Against Florida State, Syracuse didn’t need a bench. It didn’t need a lead, either. The Orange advanced to the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament’s semifinal with just a six-player rotation.

With 2:51 remaining in the first half, forward Priscilla Williams stepped in front of Florida State’s Kourtney Weber, who was barrelling toward the hoop. Weber crashed into Williams, sending SU’s star freshman sprawling. At first, fellow rookie Kamilla Cardoso rushed to help Williams up. But Williams didn’t take her hand, continuing to lie underneath the basket.

SU head coach Quentin Hillsman rushed over to his freshman’s side, grabbing her elbow, then holding her hand. As an SU trainer and Hillsman stood over Williams, the forward grabbed the right side of her head.

After lying on the ground for over 10 minutes, Williams was eventually stretchered off the floor by the ACC medical staff. With the game paused, the remaining Syracuse players huddled around the bench with the assistant coaches.

“Coach (Von) Read, coach John (Marcum) they came up to us and was like, if you’re not here to win the game for you, win it for Priscilla,” forward Emily Engstler said. “If you’re not here to win the game for you, win it for Tiana (Mangakahia).”

Eventually, a six player rotation did win — whether for their injured teammates or for themselves — on a Cardoso put-back buzzer-beater with no time remaining. As the ball swirled through the rim, Digna Strautmane corralled Cardoso in a hug when the freshman gave SU its first lead of the game in the 68-67 victory over the Seminoles. Already without four suspended bench players and Mangakahia — who is dealing with a lower body injury — coming into the game, three Syracuse players played at least 38 minutes.

After trailing 39-27 at halftime and shooting under 30% from the field, the Orange responded in the second half to upset the fourth seeded Seminoles.

“In this game we had every reason to lay down, every reason to not be engaged in the second half of this game,” Hillsman said. “They were so cohesive as a unit on the floor, played together … and we just shared the ball and made great plays.”

Three Syracuse starters had two fouls when Williams was carted off. With one bench player remaining, Hillsman couldn’t sub out players in foul trouble, and Syracuse was forced to play without fouling. 

SU also relied on players who had limited roles throughout the season. Center Amaya Finklea-Guity was averaging just over 10 minutes per game. Forward Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi played less than 15 minutes per game. 

But on Friday, Finklea-Guity played 14 minutes, while Djaldi-Tabdi was on the court for a career-high 34 minutes.

With less than two minutes remaining and Syracuse trailing by five, Djaldi-Tabdi caught a pass in the right corner. With a defender closing out, Djaldi-Tabdi opted against a contested 3. Instead, she drove past her defender and toward an open basket. 

As Djaldi-Tabdi began to jump for a layup, Florida State’s Savannah Wilkinson slid underneath SU’s forward, attempting to draw a charge.

Instead, as Djaldi-Tabdi’s layup slid off of the rim, Wilkinson was charged with a blocking foul, resulting in two made free throws.

On Syracuse’s next offensive possession, guard Kiara Lewis called for a screen from Djaldi-Tabdi. After screening Lewis’ defender, Djaldi-Tabdi slid to her left along the left wing of the arc.

But instead of trailing Djaldi-Tabdi, FSU’s defender continued to focus on Lewis. Now double teamed, Lewis took a couple of steps to her right before twisting her body and firing a pass to the wide open Djaldi-Tabdi.

The 29.5% 3-point shooter calmly collected the pass, set her feet and rose for an uncontested 3. With game time ticking down and Syracuse nearing a long road trip back to New York, Djaldi-Tabdi nailed the 3, keeping hope alive for the Orange.

“She wasn’t messing around. Maeva was really locked in, and she was ready to go,” Engstler said. “For another player like Maeva, somebody who may not play 30 minutes per game, plays maybe 7 or 8, to come in and take a role like 30 minutes and come in and throw away all those 7-or 8-minute games and just ball out — it’s really good.”

Djaldi-Tabdi became one of SU’s five players to score in double figures. Finklea Guity — who finished with eight — was the only player not to reach that threshold.

When Finklea-Guity entered the game in the first quarter, she immediately took reign of the paint. She sat on the bench for almost all of the pregame warmups but entered the game with a knee brace after the Seminoles lept to an early 11-2 lead. 

On her second possession, Djaldi-Tabdi passed to Finklea-Guity, who cut from the free-throw line to the basket. After catching the pass, the senior spun left past an FSU defender and laid a layup off the glass to score SU’s first field goal.

On Syracuse’s next possession, Finklea-Guity established low-post positioning and received an entry pass. After faking left, SU’s center faked a hook shot to her right. After her defender bit on the pump, Finklea-Guity once again reversed to her left for an easy right-handed hook shot off the glass. 

While those two shots served as half of Finklea-Guity’s points, it jump-started the offense. And on defense, Finklea-Guity was a factor as well, batting away a Bianca Jackson pass into the hands of Djaldi-Tabdi. 

“We’re not making excuses, if we mess up on a play, we go onto the next play, next possession,” Hillsman said. “They’re just doing everything they have to do to win basketball games right now.”

Even if that means four players playing at least 34 minutes. Lewis and Strautmane once again played the whole game. Engstler sat for her first two minutes of the conference tournament. 

But just like Thursday against Boston College, a thin rotation didn’t hamper Syracuse’s play. Reserves seemed unnecessary. To Syracuse, the mentality of a few can feel much larger than it truly is. 

“We’re playing like we have a 20-person roster,” Engstler said. “We’re doing so well. We’re not getting tired. We have girls playing 40 minutes and still pushing through … I think we can go out tomorrow and beat Louisville.”

Published on March 5, 2021 at 8:03 pm

Contact Thomas: tgshults@syr.edu | @ThomasShults_