"I'm going to give Syracuse a lot of credit, the way they pressured us and kept their press on the whole time," head coach Terri Mitchell said.,”The women's basketball team fell to Syracuse 66-55 tonight at the Al McGuire Center. Syracuse made it tough on Marquette all night with a full court press as Marquette's record dropped to 12-8 (3-3 Big East) on the season.

"I'm going to give Syracuse a lot of credit, the way they pressured us and kept their press on the whole time," head coach Terri Mitchell said. "I thought we were very passive in the second half with our mentality of attacking and getting the ball in the paint."

While the Syracuse press was very stingy, Marquette did not help themselves as they went 0-of-11 from beyond the arc in the second half. Marquette shot just 36.2% from the field for the game.

Freshman Jessica Pachko led Marquette in scoring with 11 points. She was the only Marquette player to reach double figures. Senior Krystal Ellis and sophomore Tatiyiana McMorris each had nine points.

Syracuse sat in a 2-3 zone for much of the game, and although Marquette had 24 points in the paint, their poor 3-point shooting ultimately doomed them.

"Coach kept telling us to attack the gaps and get an inside game and then when they collapse kick it out, but we didn't capitalize on that and we struggled with their zone," McMorris said.

Syracuse came out firing in the first half, taking an 11-1 lead at the 14:23 mark in the first half, but Marquette rallied to be down by just one at halftime, 32-31. Syracuse's Nicole Michael had 14 points in the first half, but was held to just 18 for the game.

Marquette's adjustments on Michael were valiant, but Cheandrea Jones torched the Golden Eagles for 16 second half points, finishing with a game-high 22.

"I think we have very good guards and I just think today we were not playing like we usually know that we can play," Mitchell said. "Tomorrow's a new day, and we'll adjust, we'll relive the bad moments and make them better tomorrow."

Syracuse's defense was impressive for much of the game, but it was their offense in the second half that sparked the victory as they shot 50% from the floor.

"We had some failed defensive assignments on their double cutter that we knew about out of our zone…so those things add up," Mitchell said. "We just kind of lost our focus and you can't lose your focus in this league and expect a victory."

Ellis' nine points puts her just 15 points behind Marquette's all-time scoring record. Her next chance to break the record will be Friday when the Golden Eagles travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers.

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