Syracuse Basketball: Cuse women ‘lose’ one contest but fill schedule

Syracuse basketball saw the women’s team do some fancy scheduling this week

Wednesday night Quentin Hillsman’s women’s Syracuse basketball team was slated to play the Lincoln University Lions, but the game was canceled after water from the roof was found on the court before tipoff.

Both the Orange and Lions took their talents to the Melo Center for a scrimmage to get extra work in with the shorten non-conference schedule this season.

Syracuse did not provide an immediate update to what was just a delay to begin before announcing the plan of the scrimmage. The statement indicated that the move was out of an abundance of caution and that the roof leaking should hopefully be a nonissue once they finish “spot sealing the roof.” The Orange routed the Lions at the Melo Center 90-to-39 with fulls stats available on CUSE.com.

Syracuse eventually issued a statement

This was a contest for Coach Hillsman to hopefully test out his depth to see who he has going into conference play later this month. With this game now just a scrimmage Hillsman was able to do just that as he played his All-ACC backcourt of Tiana Mangakahia and Kiara Lewis only 15 minutes each and shake up his starting lineup inserting five-star freshman Kamilla Cardoso and Priscilla Williams into the lineup.

Williams and Cardoso shined with each scoring 20 points for the first time at the college ranks. Even if it is not an official game and against a Division II program this is a major positive for the Orange moving forward.

Going forward for the Dome will be making sure the men’s basketball game Thursday night can be played safely as Niagra comes to town. Mike Curtis of Syracuse.com pointed out that this is not the first time that water has snuck through the new $118 million roof. On October 10th during a football game water was also found.

For the Orange women going into Wednesday, Lincoln was scheduled to be the Orange’s final tuneup before they head to Miami on December 10th to start ACC play but with one open date left on their schedule, the Orange were focused on filling it.

Step in now the Penn State Nittany Lions who are officially going to fill that last slot Sunday afternoon when they come to the Dome. During a virtual press conference Wednesday, Hillsman told Curtis, “it’s huge. You always want to play as many games before conference play.”

Many programs have continued to add games on both the men’s and women’s side to fill out their schedules and give their teams more game experience together. The men’s team can play at most 27 regular-season games so they could add another game but with how their schedule is lined up December 26th seems like the best date available yet the chances of adding a game then is slim.