Syracuse women can't hold 1st half lead vs. Irish

The Orange did for 15 minutes.

Syracuse couldn't keep the Fighting Irish down any longer than that, though, as the Orange saw their 15-point lead cut to three points by halftime, then fell behind early in the second half and never recovered en route to a 79-68 loss to the Irish.

"I knew it would be a very emotional night in the arena," Hillsman said. "I thought our players came out in the first half and competed. ... They came out strong in the second half and made their run early and we just didn't recover. Good teams don't let you recover."

Kayla Alexander, who led Syracuse with 24 points and 16 rebounds, said the key was the Irish outrebounded the Orange in the second half and forced 26 turnovers for the game.

"I feel like if we had contained those two, it probably would have been a different ball game," she said.

Skylar Diggins scored 21 points in the first half to get the Irish back in the game and then told Kayla McBride at halftime she was counting on her.

"I went to K-Mac and told her, 'It's all you, baby,' because I was tired," Diggins said. "I told her, 'You're going to take us there.'"

McBride scored a career-high 25 points and Diggins finished with 24 points and eight assists as the Fighting Irish won their 21st straight .

The game was one of starkly different halves. Syracuse had 12 more rebounds than Notre Dame in the first half and had a 47-31 percent advantage in shooting. The Irish turned those numbers around in the second half. They had 13 more rebounds and outshot the Orange 44-32 percent.

Hillsman said the difference was the Orange made their shots in the first half and didn't in the second half, meaning they had to guard the Irish in transition more.

"They came out strong in the second half and made their run early and we just didn't recover," he said.