Miranda Drummond knocked down a 3-pointer with 1:29 remaining in the fourth quarter of Syracuse’s loss to Virginia Tech on Feb. 1. She made another 3-ball 22 seconds later.

SU lost that night while scoring just 64 points, 10 below its season average. Drummond’s makes partially salvaged a quiet night, but there have been a lot of quiet nights of late for the junior transfer from St. Bonaventure.

Syracuse (18-7, 6-6 Atlantic Coast) depended on Drummond as part of a one-two punch for much of the season with Tiana Mangakahia. Of late, though, the Binghamton native hasn’t taken, or made, many shots. Between opponents game-planning to shut down Drummond and Syracuse’s freshman bigs stepping up offensively, her scoring average has plummeted. Since Jan. 7, when Drummond dropped 38 points, she hasn’t exceeded her scoring average entering the contest in any of the ensuing eight games.

“It’s discouraging, for sure,” Drummond said. “… I haven’t been shooting as well as I did.”

Opposing teams watch more film when preparing for conference opponents than nonconference foes, SU associate head coach Vonn Read suggested. This means that as Drummond lit up the Orange’s out-of-conference opponents to the tune of 17.3 points per game, more and more tape was created for ACC opponents to learn from. It showed against the Hokies on Feb. 1.

Early in the season, Drummond was still somewhat of a “surprise,” Read said. Against Stony Brook on Dec. 3, the Seawolves kept leaving Drummond open. As SU repeatedly got out in transition, SBU rushed to defend the paint while the Orange junior spotted up outside the arc. In an overtime win, Drummond took 21 shots, 12 from 3-point land, scoring 23 points. But, as Read said Tuesday, “once you get to conference play, there are no surprises.”

By the time the Hokies came to the Carrier Dome, Drummond’s airspace wasn’t there. When the Orange pushed the basketball, Virginia Tech made sure a player remained near the perimeter to ensure Drummond wasn’t wide open. When the 6-foot-1 forward opted to find offense with back cuts, the Hokies rotated to shut down usually easy basket opportunities.

After that game, SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said Drummond “had some opportunities” but the Orange didn’t get her the ball. In contrast to her early season shooting outbursts — 17 shots against Vanderbilt, 21 against Stony Brook and 22 against Northwestern — Drummond took just seven shots against Virginia Tech.

“Eventually I knew (opponents would) catch on that I’m gonna shoot it mostly every time that I touch the ball,” Drummond said.

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In SU’s last four games, Drummond hasn’t shot more than nine times. That’s after shooting at least 10 times in 12 of 21 games prior. In lieu of this drop in shots, the forward has sought ways to impact the game outside of scoring.

Against Virginia Tech, that meant grabbing a season-high 13 rebounds. The game before VT, against Boston College, she nabbed two steals. In consecutive January games against Pittsburgh, Clemson and BC, she covered ground in Syracuse’s pressure defense to limit opposing shooters, especially in the corners, and hold the opposition in the 50s for three-straight games.

“When I can’t knock down a shot I guess getting a rebound kinda gets my game going,” Drummond said. “I guess that’s what I do as an alternative.”

The decline in shots from Drummond has also coincided with more shots for Syracuse’s two tallest players, freshmen Amaya Finklea-Guity and Digna Strautmane. In SU’s last four games, Drummond scored 7, 6, 12 and 4 points. Strautmane put up her three-largest outputs of the season in the first of those three contests — 25, 20, 22 — before scoring 13 in the most recent. Finklea-Guity averaged eight points per game in those four outings, raising her season average to more than 7 per game.

“It all plays off of each other and it really helps to be able to have that balance,” Read said.

Drummond hasn’t scored more than 12 points in the last six games. But the Orange is 4-2 in those games. So even as Syracuse’s second-leading scorer sees her average drop, the Orange has found ways to win.

In Hillsman’s dream system, Drummond is the best of both worlds. She shoots a lot of 3s (161 attempts, second-most on the team) and she makes a lot of them. She’s cashed 61 attempts from behind the arc for a 37.9 percent rate, second-best on SU. Early in the season, Mangakahia and Drummond were SU’s consistent scorers. Now, other players have taken some of the scoring load off of Drummond’s shoulders. Strautmane and Finklea-Guity have found their offensive roles and now Drummond needs to find hers again. For Syracuse to reach its full scoring potential, Drummond likely needs to take, and make, more shots.

“I know that I do need to shoot more and I do need to get more shots off,” Drummond said. “… I know that I have to start contributing more.”

Published on February 14, 2018 at 10:03 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3