Army head coach Dave Magarity paced the sideline with his hands on the back of his head, then took a knee at the end of the bench to catch his breath. His players on the court looked like they were mentally and physically trying to do the same.

The game was only in its opening minutes, Syracuse led just 3-2, but the Orange press had held the Black Knights backcourt on two of its attempts to get over the halfcourt line and it was only going to get much worse.

Army made just one field goal in the first quarter, its leading-scorer was held scoreless through the first half, and No. 4 seed SU (26-7, 13-3 Atlantic Coast) led by as much as 30 on the way to a, 73-56, blowout of the Black Knights (29-3, 17-1 Patriot) at the Carrier Dome on Friday. In the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 64 and the first women’s basketball tournament games hosted in the Carrier Dome, the Orange made easy work of Army. SU advanced to the Round of 32 for the third year in a row.

Syracuse will face 12th-seeded Albany on Sunday. The Great Danes pulled off a stunning comeback against fifth-seeded Florida earlier on Friday, beating the Gators, 61-58. On Thursday, Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said his team was on upset alert.

“We were beat 30 seconds after the bracket came out,” he said.

But when the game finally tipped off around 2:50 p.m. on Friday, it was anything but that just minutes in.

The Orange jumped out to a 15-2 lead early and led by 19 at the end of the first quarter thanks to its suffocating defense and starting point guard Alexis Peterson. SU forced eight turnovers and Peterson scored 12 points.

SU’s full court defense swapped between a zone trap scheme and man-to-man, as it has done this season. The half court defense swapped rapidly between the 2-3 zone and man-to-man, sometimes even in the middle of possessions.

No matter what Syracuse was running, Army struggled to solve it.

Published on March 18, 2016 at 5:01 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus