Rachel Coffey entered Saturday’s game red hot. In Syracuse’s win over Rutgers earlier this week the guard ignited the offense in the second half with her shooting.

Against South Florida she had a chance to be the hero again. But with two chances to either send the game into overtime or win, the junior came up short as the Orange suffered just its fourth loss of the season.

A layup by Bulls center Akila McDonald with 24 seconds remaining gave USF a 68-66 lead. After Coffey and USF’s Alisia Jenkins traded missed layups, Syracuse’s guard missed a 3-pointer in the final second, leaving the Orange (22-4, 10-3 Big East) with just its third conference loss of the season and handing South Florida (19-7, 8-5) its second marquee win in as many games.

Though the totals on the scoreboard ended up lower than both teams’ up-tempo offenses average, the first half flew at the pace both are used to.

Syracuse jumped out to an early 7-0 lead in the first two and a half minutes fueled by four points from guard Brittney Sykes. But South Florida came right back to tie the game at nine less than five minutes in.

From there the two battled back and forth throughout the opening frame. With less than four minutes remaining in the first the Bulls had taken a 26-24 lead. Sykes committed a turnover. The Orange needed a timeout.
Then Carmen Tyson-Thomas took over.

The guard scored 11 points over the final four minutes and the Orange ended the half on a 13-0 run to go into the break with a 37-26 lead. Tyson-Thomas had 15 points.

SU guard Brianna Butler knocked down a jumper on Syracuse’s first possession of the second half to cap the Orange’s run at 15-0. SU scored just 27 points the rest of the way. Tyson-Thomas scored just two.

At the 1:46 mark Bulls guard Andrell Smith knocked down a 3 to give the Bulls a 66-64 lead. SU head coach Quentin Hillsman took another timeout with the Orange trailing by 2 with less than a minute remaining. Tyson-Thomas dropped in a layup to tie the game with 41 seconds remaining for her first basket of the second half.

After a USF timeout came McDonald’s heroics to give South Florida its ultimate 68-66 lead. Two missed field goals on the other end later, SU had its first loss since Jan. 26.

Published on February 23, 2013 at 7:00 pm

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2