With six minutes gone in the second half and Syracuse leading by seven, head coach Quentin Hillsman called a designed play to create open space for Brianna Butler behind the 3-point line.

“Cowboy basic out,” Hillsman yelled.

Butler ran off a screen, caught a pass on the left wing and hoisted her third missed 3 of the game.

It was an all-around rough afternoon for Butler, who played with a bruised left knee she suffered in practice this past week. The junior guard shot just 2-of-9 and finished with five points and three rebounds in the No. 24 Orange’s (1-0) 59-42 victory over Fordham (0-2) in the Carrier Dome on Sunday. With Brittney Sykes, Syracuse’s leading-scorer from last season, sidelined with a torn ACL, Fordham zoned in on SU’s second-leading scorer from last season, Butler.

“To be quite honest, Brianna probably shouldn’t have played today,” Hillsman said. “You could visibly see she wasn’t herself today. I thought it was a gutsy, gutsy thing for her to play. She had an option not to play, and she chose to play.

“ … I thought that was one of the best five-point performances I’ve seen in a long time.”

Butler said her play wasn’t limited by the injury. She shot 0-for-4 from 3 and missed three jumpers in 28 minutes. The junior was effective on the defensive end – logging three rebounds and two steals – and on drives to the basket. Her first points came on a drive through the left side of the lane to give the Orange a 9-2 lead five minutes into the first half.

The junior’s only other made field goal came on a mirror image replay of her earlier layup. With 2:54 left in the first half, a Butler lay-in cut the Fordham lead to 18-16.

“I just saw that there were openings,” said Butler, who walked into the postgame news conference with a large pack of ice taped around her left knee. “They were really pressuring me outside the 3-point line, so I saw a lot of openings to get inside the paint.”

But the small forward began the second half with three missed 3s and didn’t attempt a shot for a 10-minute span from 13:16 to 3:37 left in the game. Fordham forward G’mrice Davis fouled Butler with 3:37 to play and Butler extended the Syracuse lead to 19 with her first free throw.

But on a day in which the Orange pulled away late for a comfortable win, one of its go-to scorers wasn’t at full strength.

“In practice we go hard every day, and with that, you’re going to get bumps and bruises,” Butler said. “ … I just tried to come out and do what I usually do and not focus on my knee.”

Published on November 16, 2014 at 3:59 pm

Contact Josh: jmhyber@syr.edu