Julie McBride shook her right wrist nervously. Syracuse women’s basketball coach Keith Cieplicki asked McBride if she was OK. She never even turned around to acknowledge Cieplicki, motioning to him that she could stay in the game. After all, McBride has never missed a game in her SU career because of injury. With 9:25 remaining in the first half and the score tied at 19, McBride had no intentions of coming out.

The injury to McBride’s shooting hand occurred when she collided with a West Virginia player going for a loose ball that was headed out-of-bounds. While the Lady Mountaineer went flying off the court and landed on top of a garbage can, McBride never hit the floor. McBride, though, jammed her wrist when going for the ball.

McBride stayed in the game, but turned the ball over on the Orangewomen’s next two possessions. Then, McBride went to the bench and had the wrist wrapped before returning two minutes later. A tie game turned into a 10-point halftime deficit from which SU could never fully recover. Syracuse went on to fall to the Mountaineers, 69-57.

In the second half, McBride ditched the wrap and scored 14 of her game-high 19 points. After the game, she had little to say about the injury, claiming her wrist was fine. She also said she felt more comfortable with the wrapping off.

Rather than relying on her outside shot in the second half, McBride took the ball to the hoop more, something that Cieplicki has urged her to do of late. The work inside also earned her eight foul shots.

Driving to the basket also set up seven McBride assists, which allowed her to pass Raquel Nurse’s 530 assists for first place on the Orangewomen’s all-time assist list. McBride now has 534 career assists.

‘Coach wants me to take it to the rim more,’ McBride said. ‘It opens up a lot for everybody. It opens up a lot for me and my teammates, and we don’t have to rely on outside shooting as much.’

Beat at its own game

Coincidentally, West Virginia won the game from behind the 3-point line. Entering the game, SU led the Big East in 3-point attempts with 392. The Mountaineers entered fourth in the conference, hoisting up 283 attempts. The difference? West Virginia is second in the league in 3-point percentage, hitting 38.2 percent of its attempts. The Orangewomen sit in 12th place, knocking down only 29.6 of their tries.

For the game, West Virginia shot nearly 45 percent from 3-point range, while SU shot 35 percent. But the Mountaineers did most of their damage before halftime, knocking down 7 of 9 3s. In the second half, the Orangewomen switched from a 2-3 zone to a mostly man-to-man defense. This helped limit West Virginia’s 3-point shots.

‘They got a lot of wide-open looks,’ McBride said. ‘People are going to hit wide-open looks. We didn’t play good transition defense. They got a lot of 3s in transition, especially in the first half. In the second half, we got back better.’

The Orangewomen attempted 20 3-pointers, well below their season average of 25.6 attempts per game. SU makes 7.7 3-pointers per contest. SU has had its most trouble shooting at Manley Field House, where it has shot only 28 percent from 3-point range.

‘We were just concentrating on moving the ball,’ said West Virginia guard Meg Bulger, who led the Mountaineers with 18 points. ‘That’s the key to our offense, moving the ball and getting shots.’

Break the huddle

Cieplicki, who lost his temper at several times during the game, became particularly enraged when one official penalized the Orangewomen for failing to break the huddle quick enough following a timeout. One of the referees began counting down the five seconds a team has to inbound the ball. This prompted Cieplicki to scream, ‘Come on, this isn’t high school!’

Later, Cieplicki got on the official because she failed to begin the five-second count when West Virginia didn’t break the huddle in a timely matter. After the game, Cieplicki struggled to offer an explanation.

‘I guess the rule’s open for interpretation,’ Cieplicki said with a smile.

This and that

The Orangewomen, who have struggled mightily rebounding, were only out-rebounded by five, 38-33. Coming into the game, SU’s rebounding margin was -11.7. … The lost dropped Syracuse from seventh to ninth place in the Big East standings. Only the top 12 teams make the Big East tournament. … The sisters of St. Louis Rams quarterback Marc Bulger, Meg and Kate, both play for West Virginia. Despite the Rams loss to the Panthers in the NFL Divisional playoffs, both sisters said they plan to root for Carolina in the Super Bowl.

Published on January 25, 2004 at 12:00 pm