Syracuse senior Nicole Michael returned to the lineup for the Orange in today’s 76-71 win over eighth-seeded Providence in the second round of the Big East tournament at the XL Center. She had missed Friday’s first-round win over 16th-seeded Seton Hall.
Michael, who is Syracuse’s career leader in scoring (1,737) and rebounding (958), finished with 12 points and four rebounds in 18 minutes.
“I feel good,’’ Michael said. “It felt much better today. It’s getting better and better every day.’’
Michael has been bothered by discomfort in her right foot for some time this season. It finally reached a breaking point in Tuesday’s victory over No. 7 West Virginia when she landed on it wrong.
Michael sat out the final 14 minutes against the Mountaineers and could not play against 16th-seeded Seton Hall in the first round Saturday. She was in the starting lineup. However, with about three minutes remaining on the pregame clock it was decided that she would not play.
Michael said that her foot is at 93 percent strength right now. Orange coach Quentin Hillsman subbed her out of the game six times in the first half and five more times in the second half today.
“Pretty much Coach was taking me out because of my foot,’’ Michael said. “So every time I went back in I just kept on working harder.’’
“My assessment is she was good,’’ Hillsman said. “She was her normal self to me. I thought there was a few possessions where she looked a little winded, but she hadn’t run in a week. She’s been in a boot all week back at school. So overall I thought she played a very good game for her to have 12 points and four rebounds in 18 minutes.
Hillsman could not affirmatively say how many minutes Michael would see tomorrow against the Huskies. She was averaging 26.3 minutes through her first 29 games.
“I have no idea how her foot is going to react over the night,’’ Hillsman said. “So we have to see where she is. Today was more about her conditioning than it was about her foot.’’
Junior Erica Morrow has scored 42 points on 12-of-36 shooting (3-of-13 3-pointers) in the first two rounds of the tournament. When asked if she was aware of UConn’s 69-game winning streak, she said she had no idea.
“I actually wasn’t aware of it,’’ Morrow said. “We’re just going to come out and compete. It’s a great opportunity. Their record … It really doesn’t affect us. We’re just going to come out and try to play a great basketball game.’’
Hillsman doesn’t believe that UConn seeking to tie its own record of 70 straight wins will provide any further motivation to want to take down the Huskies tomorrow and advance to the semifinals. He knows the Orange face an up-hill battle tomorrow.
“We’ve got to go play a basketball game,’’ Hillsman said. “They’re a great basketball team. Geno’s a great coach and he gets his players to play really hard. So I know they’re going to come out and compete tomorrow. I’m sure their fans can’t wait to see them play so it’s going to be a great atmosphere for a women’s college basketball game. So we’re going to come out and play as hard as we can and we’re going to compete. You’ve just got to give them a lot of credit. To have an undefeated team in your conference, it’s a great honor to have them in our conference. So we’re going to come out and play basketball tomorrow. Somebody has to play them so I guess it’s us. So we’ve got to get ready to play tomorrow.
“We’ve just got to rebound the basketball and get back in transition. They’re a very good transition team, obviously, the way Tina (Charles) and Maya (Moore) run the floor. It’s tremendous when you watch them on tape how fast they get up and down the floor. And therefore they’re down there to get misses. So we’ve got to really get back on defense and try to limit their transition points and rebound the basketball.’’
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