Bria Day caught a pass running down the court in transition, set her feet and fired a shot into the bottom of the backboard. The ball bounced off the floor and back into Day’s hands, giving her a second chance. She went up again, this time getting shoved away from the basket, and stumbled along the baseline, trying not to fall, as the ball went through the hoop.

It wasn’t pretty. The Orange shot just 33 percent in the first half — 29 percent from beyond the arc — and turned the ball over 10 times.

With less than two minutes left in the third quarter, a lowly Clemson team searching for its first win in 10 games and first conference win in over a year was within striking distance, trailing by just nine points.

And though Syracuse stumbled, it didn’t fall. Led by Brianna Butler, who scored a game-high 17 points, the Orange opened the fourth quarter with five 3s in the first five and a half minutes. The late baskets from long distance salvaged an otherwise largely lackluster performance as Syracuse (17-6, 7-3 Atlantic Coast) beat Clemson (4-18, 0-9), 83-62, at the Carrier Dome on Thursday night.

“We won,” SU guard Brittney Sykes said, “but as always there were a lot of things we have to improve on and play clean basketball. A lot of our possessions were our fault, whether we lost the ball, we turned the ball over or we missed an assignment.”

Syracuse’s first half was marred by missed shots, especially on layups inside, and turnovers. The Orange had three misses, two turnovers and two shots blocked in the first two minutes. SU’s 22 forced turnovers through the first 20 minutes were its only footing in a game that it held a 13-point lead going into the break.

“It’s just natural for teams to play to the level of competition,” Clemson head coach Audra Smith said. “They just came off a big win against Miami,” referencing SU’s late win over the No. 16 Hurricanes on Monday night, “so they’re still excited about that and with us coming in with our record. They’re kids so they weren’t ready to play and I could tell.”

On one possession, Hillsman called a timeout in the middle of an offensive set to stomp onto the floor and repeatedly yell, “What are you doing?” at Isabella Slim, who seemingly wasn’t in the right position.

Less than a minute later, Sykes stood at the 3-point line furiously calling for a screen. When Briana Day finally came to her relief, Sykes traveled trying to get around the pick.

“I’ve known Q for a long time,” Smith said. “He was really ticked off with them at how they were playing and allowing us to hang around and cut into that lead.”

Only 13 points separated Clemson, which had lost by an average of 25.9 points in conference play prior to Thursday, and Syracuse, which beat a ranked team just three days earlier, to start the final quarter.

But then Maggie Morrison hit a 3 in the right corner to start a 21-6 Orange run. Hillsman told his team he wanted it to up its intensity and it obliged. Four different SU players converted triples during the run and the damage was a game-high 28-point lead with four and a half minutes to play.

Clemson, playing with just eight players, couldn’t keep up with the bombardment of shooters running off screens to the 3-point line.

Hillsman said his team wasn’t suffering any sort of hangover from the Miami game and that Clemson, despite being winless in its last 25 conference games, isn’t a bad team. The ACC is just a tough conference, he said.

Either way, it still took the Orange until the fourth quarter to put away a team that has won just four games all season.

Published on February 4, 2016 at 11:32 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus