The women's hoops team huddles up during its shootaround session on Friday.
Tournament Ready: Syracuse and Hartford Clash In NCAA Tournament
3/22/2008 2:25:19 PM | Women's Basketball
BATON ROUGE, La. – The Orange women's basketball team took to the court for practice on Friday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on the campus of Louisiana State University, the site of SU's NCAA Tournament game against Hartford on Saturday, March 22 at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET. The game, which will be televised on ESPN 2, will be SU's fourth nationally televised game of the season.
"It's very motivating," said freshman guard Erica Morrow. "As everyone said, we've come out and worked hard this year and just to be on the national stage showcasing our talent and showcasing how hard we can play and just how far our program, our whole staff and all the players have come is exciting. Just any NCAA Tournament game is exciting and we hope to continue and go as far in the postseason as possible.
Fans wishing to cheer on the Orange via radio waves can listen to the game live on WTLA 1200/1440 AM and through Orange All Access with Brian Higgins on the call. Syracuse student radio WJPZ 89.1 FM will also provide a broadcast. The game can be followed live through live stats.
Seventh-seeded Syracuse is playing in its fourth NCAA postseason of all-time and will try and earn the program's first victory in tournament history. To do so, SU will have to get by 10th-seeded Hartford, which is making its third NCAA appearance in four years.
"I just feel it's great to be a part of a team that made a lot of history this year," said sophomore guard Nicole Michael. "I feel like we played hard and we worked for it as a team and together we built our confidence and just played hard."
Saturday's game will follow the second-seed Texas A&M and 15th-seed Texas-San Antonio contest, which is slated for noon ET start. On Monday, March 24, the winner of that game will face the winner of SU's game.
"It means a lot (to be here)," said head coach Quentin Hillsman. "This is our fourth time in 37 years being in the tournament, so we're excited about the game. When you talk about what it means to compete at this level and to have a chance to win the national championship, I mean, that's what you strive for. It's an honor and it's a pleasure and we've worked very hard to get here."
The last time Syracuse was in the tournament was in 2002 when it lost to Drake, 87-69, in Waco, Texas. The Orange will rely on a balance offensive and defensive attack that has scored 71.7 points per game and has allowed just 61.8 points per contest to land the Hawks.
SU's offensive success has resulted in the second-best mark in school history. Only the 1980-81 team averaged more when they put up 72.0 points per outing. Syracuse's 1,300 rebounds also rank second in school history only to the 1980-81 squad. This season, SU is 22-2 when it has grabbed more rebounds than its opponents.
Senior forward Fantasia Goodwin has paced the team with 8.9 rebounds per game and is averaging 7.9 boards for her career. Contributing down low is fellow senior Vaida Sipaviciute with 1.7 blocks per game. She ranks second all-time in school history with 234 career rejections.
The freshman backcourt of Tasha Harris and Morrow are the leading distributors of the basketball with 3.83 and 3.76 assists per game, respectively. Both were named to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team and have started every game this season.
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