With the Syracuse women’s basketball team down by 13 points entering the second half against Boston College and power forward Chineze Nwagbo feeling ill, coach Keith Cieplicki needed to make a change. So Cieplicki abandoned the post game he touts as the key for success in the Big East for an offense he ran during last year’s 6-21 season.

And his plan almost worked.

The Orange used a four-guard lineup and a motion offense to draw within three points of BC before the quicker lineup ran out of steam. The Eagles soundly defeated SU on Saturday at Manley Field House, 75-50.

‘I was real proud of the team to fight back in it,’ Cieplicki said. ‘There were points in the first half went I thought we were going to take the knockout punch. This Boston College team is very well balanced and when you try to defend a team like this, as they showed, they have a lot of different weapons. We made some decent adjustments, but not enough to get it done.’

But for the first six minutes of the second half it seemed like the Orange was a different team. While the SU (11-12, 3-9 Big East) guards stood around and watched as the ball was dumped into the post in the first half, the constant movement of the motion offense seemed to re-energize them and confuse BC (16-6, 7-4). The Orange went on a 12-4 run to open the second half.

With Nwagbo on the bench for the majority of the second half, Cieplicki pulled freshman center Vaida Sipaviciute out to the top of the key and vacated the paint.

With fewer bodies in the post area, guards Jessica Richter, Rochelle Coleman and Tracy Harbut could penetrate the BC defense for easy lay-ups. When the Eagles finally closed off the paint, it left Richter and Coleman open for perimeter shots.

Richter scored a team-high 14 points for SU and Coleman added 12.

‘The four guards hurt us a little bit,’ BC coach Cathy Inglese said. ‘They were getting the ball and going to the basket. We really weren’t doing a great job containing them. They hurt us more with that lineup and the motion than anything else.’

After Syracuse pulled the score to 47-44 with 12:47 left in the second half, a frustrated Inglese called a timeout to adjust her team to SU’s motion offense. BC matched Syracuse’s quick lineup with one of its own. With speed no longer an advantage for the Orange, it rapidly lost the momentum it had gained.

BC went into the paint and took advantage of Nwagbo’s absence. The Eagles continued to pound the ball inside on the young SU lineup. Boston College scored 26 points in the paint, 14 coming in the second half. It closed out the game with a 27-6 run.

‘We felt like the momentum swung our way,’ Coleman said, ‘and then our defense let it go.’

When the Eagles brought in their smaller players, Syracuse tried to counter by going back to Sipaviciute in the paint. Sipaviciute had plenty of open looks, but lacked the shooting touch she displayed in previous games. She shot 6 of 14 from the field and scored 12 points.

And while Syracuse committed fewer turnovers than Boston College, the Eagles managed to capitalize on almost all of SU’s 16 turnovers. BC scored 27 points off turnovers.

‘Again today, we were talking about valuing the possessions,’ Cieplicki said. ‘When we come down and throw it to them, it just deflates our energy. It gives them a pretty good opportunity when they’re running back at us. We don’t shoot a great percentage anyway, but when you shoot less shots and don’t shoot a great percentage, that’s not a great combination.’

Published on February 13, 2005 at 12:00 pm