For the second time in five days, Syracuse beat its opponent by more than 50 points.

The Orange defeated Maine (3-2) in convincing fashion, 97-42, on Sunday in front of 368 in the Carrier Dome. In a true team effort, 11 players scored for SU (5-0) and 11 players played more than 10 minutes.

“Today we did a really good job getting out in transition and getting easy baskets up and down the floor,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said during his postgame press conference. “I’m really happy with the way we played overall. We had nine turnovers, 27 offensive rebounds, and did a very, very good job getting 35 points off turnovers, 42 points in the paint and forcing 27 turnovers.”

Freshman center Briana Day had the best showing of her young career with 13 points and 12 rebounds, both career highs. Sophomore guards Brittney Sykes and Brianna Butler combined for 34 points to lead the Orange to another blowout victory.

“I’ve been struggling over the past four games with just taking my time and slowing down, but I definitely did that tonight,” Day said during the postgame press conference.

Syracuse began the game on a 12-0 run, sandwiched by 3-pointers from Butler and Isabella Slim. Rachel Coffey had three assists during the stretch and finished with a game-high five.

After Maine guard Sophie Weckstrom hit a jump shot just under four minutes in to end the shutout, SU went on another substantial run. The Orange scored the next 15 points to extend its lead to 27-2. Butler had two more 3s, along with a 3-pointer from La’Shay Taft.

“We were just getting open shots and knocking them down,” Butler said during the postgame press conference. “(La’Shay) and I were just on fire today.”

Maine guard Courtney Anderson hit a 3 to end the streak, but SU went on a 24-8 run to end the half. Taft drained a 3-pointer with eight seconds to go to give the Orange a 51-13 halftime lead.

The second half was more of the same. Syracuse totaled 29 points from non-starters while both Day and Sykes scored nine points.

SU will now travel to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands to play in the Paradise Jam. The Orange will play Texas on Thursday, Memphis on Friday and Texas A&M on Saturday. All games will be at 8:15 p.m.

“That was our goal,” Hillsman said. “To get to the Virgin Islands undefeated. So, so far so good.”

Published on November 24, 2013 at 6:11 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu