The Syracuse women’s basketball team did not end its season with a Big East tournament championship and will not be granted an NCAA Tournament berth Sunday. But in head coach Keith Cieplicki’s second year at SU, his team progressed.

The 11th-seeded Orange upset sixth-seeded Georgetown on Saturday, 65-58, in the first round of the conference tournament. It was a stepping stone for the program that Cieplicki is working to rebuild into a contender.

‘This has been one of my favorite years coaching,’ Cieplicki said. ‘We won a lot of games at Vermont but the character of this team showed tonight.’

SU finished the year with a 13-16 record, far better than the six-win season a year ago. The win total was the third highest in a season for the Orange in the last 15 years, and included a number of tight losses against the top teams in the Big East. SU came close to upsetting regular-season champion, Rutgers twice. It also came within five points of second-place Notre Dame well into the second half.

The Orange couldn’t pull out the victories – SU lost 10 of its final 12 regular season games – but it got closer to competing every night in one of the country’s best conferences.

Cieplicki will lose two key seniors in Rochelle Coleman and Chineze Nwagbo. Cieplicki said Coleman did practically everything this past season, including giving up her scorer’s role to play point guard. Nwagbo was SU’s most physical post presence and the team’s vocal leader.

But the two conference tournament games may have been a glimpse at how SU can deal with their graduations. Freshmen Jessica Richter and Vaida Sipaviciute were key contributors throughout the season. Classmate Mary Joe Riley continued to improve in the second half of the season, Amanda Adamson capped off her rookie campaign with a 13-point outing against No. 14 Connecticut and sophomore Tracy Harbut was the team’s best player over the weekend. She missed a double-double by one point against Georgetown and scored a career-high 13 points vs. UConn.

‘We have to continue to strive to be at the highest level in this league,’ Cieplicki said. ‘The young (players) are going to be fine. Obviously we’re going to miss our seniors, (but) we have a lot of momentum going into the off-season.’

Cieplicki will bring in his second recruiting class in the fall and continue to build the program into his vision.

So while UConn blasted the Orange to close out Cieplicki’s sophomore year on the bench, there were a lot of smiles for having earned the right to play the Huskies.

‘You win a game and you prepare for the next game, and that’s what we’re going to be doing,’ Nwagbo said after the Georgetown victory. ‘We’re going to be preparing for the next game and after that game, we’ll prepare for the next game.’

Nwagbo didn’t get the chance to prepare for that game on the third day of the tournament. But it doesn’t hurt as much knowing that no one expected her team to even prepare for a second game. Syracuse didn’t have to pack up the bus right away or watch the quarterfinals from the Hartford Civic Center stands. And that was a big step forward.

‘It’s been a great year for us,’ Cieplicki said. ‘I credit the seniors and the great team camaraderie. We have a lot to build on.’

Published on March 6, 2005 at 12:00 pm