The Daily Orange

Media Credit: Nate Shron

Last season, Erica Morrow grinded through almost 33 minutes of exhausting back-and-forth play each game as a starter on the Syracuse women's basketball team.

"It was tough," said Morrow, a junior guard. "It's going to be a lot different this year."

This year, Morrow is catching up on her rest. With a roster he has called the deepest in his short career at Syracuse, head coach Quentin Hillsman has relied extensively on his entire group of players through the team's first two games this season.

Hillsman has used at least 12 players in each of SU's games thus far, with 10 players averaging more than 15 minutes through the team's first two contests.

Syracuse (2-0) will look to continue putting its depth to use as it prepares to take on Alabama State today at 7 p.m. at Manley Field House.

Last season, Hillsman entrusted a core group of six players with the bulk of his team's minutes, as those six each played more than 20 minutes per game. This season, only Morrow, senior forward Nicole Michael and junior guard Tasha Harris are playing more than 20 minutes.

And Hillsman doesn't expect that to change anytime soon.

"We're going to keep the carousel moving," Hillsman said. "We have enough talent and players to do that, so we're definitely going to take advantage of that."

After the Orange's opening 65-45 win over Farleigh Dickinson last Friday, Hillsman pointed to his team's depth as one of the major factors in the victory.

SU used all 13 of its active players, including nine players for more than 15 minutes. Syracuse eventually wore down the Knights, which only used nine players.

"I think that overall we knew they were thin," Hillsman said after the game. "In the second half, I think they just got worn down a little bit from having nine players who could play.

"I think that says a lot about our depth. It was very good."

Hillsman said he is more comfortable utilizing more bodies this season because of the improvement of the returning players and his highly-touted freshman class filled with newcomers he trusts to succeed in big spots immediately.

Intent on keeping his players fresh for the stretch run of games and of the season, Hillsman plans on using the newfound depth to his advantage.

"We really want to play nine, 10 players in double-figure minutes," he said. "We want to really get into our bench and play aggressive, play strong."

Continued...

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