Syracuse was only 1:45 into the game against Rhode Island and head coach Quentin Hillsman was already going to his bench. But this was no ordinary substitution-senior Ashley McMillen checked in for her first minutes of the season.

McMillen returned to the SU lineup on Saturday after being sidelined for a month with a knee injury. The senior showed no fear as she fired her first shot from way outside the 3-point line. McMillen estimated the shot was from about 35 feet away; regardless, she drained it.

‘That’s Ashley,’ freshman Nicole Michael said. ‘She’ll shoot from half court and she’ll make it. We know she can shoot from anywhere so it wasn’t that much of a shock.’

Hillsman said he did not know McMillen would be playing when the team traveled to the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence, R.I., for the Brown Classic this weekend. Adding McMillen at the last second to a team that has struggled to score recently helped lead SU to the tournament championship after beating URI, 66-63, and UC Davis, 75-55.

McMillen said she was not afraid to shoot from such long range because her high school coach encouraged her to fire away from all over the court. She said Hillsman feels the same way about her shot selection.

‘If I didn’t shoot from there he would yell at me,’ McMillen said. ‘If I was open and I passed it from there he would yell.’

McMillen scored 12 points in the first game against the Rams and added another 14 on Sunday against the Aggies. Michael led the team with 36 points and 19 rebounds for the weekend and was named Big East freshman of the week for the second consecutive week.

After just one month of rehabbing after her injury, McMillen did not think she was going to play in the tournament. She had just started running on Tuesday for the first time since the injury and had set a goal of returning to the lineup when SU travels to Puerto Rico on Dec. 19. But after warming up before the URI game, McMillen knew she was ready to play.

‘Originally I thought I would just play a couple of minutes and see how it was and if it hurt I would stop,’ McMillen said. ‘But I felt pretty good, so I kept playing.’

By the end of the game, McMillen had played 28 minutes, giving the rest of the team some much needed rest after competing with only nine players the whole season.

Not only did she log minutes for the Orange, McMillen was effective shooting the ball. She was 8-of-17 from 3-point range in the tournament, adding another scoring threat from the outside. The more success McMillen has on the outside, Hillsman said, the more success junior Vaida Sipaviciute will have on the inside.

‘She shot the ball really well,’ Hillsman said. ‘She really brought another dimension to the offense. Now they really can’t sit in Vaida’s lap.’

The Orange struggled to score during a three-game losing streak, failing to break 60 points between Nov. 19 and Nov. 26. Hillsman said he was looking for another scorer to go along with Michael, Sipaviciute and junior Fantasia Goodwin. He may have finally found that fourth scorer in McMillen.

‘From my side, definitely it’s huge to have another person that can score and can make a shot,’ Hillsman said. ‘If you get her open she has a great chance to make a shot.’

Rebounding from the losing streak with a three-game winning streak has put the players in a positive mood and brought SU’s record to 4-4 on the season. Hillsman stressed the team needs to keep the wins in perspective as much as the losses.

‘We understand it’s a long season and we didn’t think we’d win no games,’ Hillsman said. ‘We’re very excited about the wins and hopefully they’ll come in and work hard and not be satisfied with it.’

Published on December 3, 2006 at 12:00 pm