The closer Brittney Sykes inched to 1,000 career points, the harder it became to dodge the text messages and tweets sharing the same idea: Get your thousand tonight.

Just seven points away before playing Louisville on Jan. 25, she only mustered three in a blowout loss. Finally, against Boston College two days later, Sykes poached an errant pass and charged toward the basket to complete her mission.

She released her layup early, causing a brief moment of concern, but subsequently bumped it off the backboard and through the net. Sykes became the 25th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point plateau, a height reached in large part because of two electrifying seasons from the Sykes of old, the one that used to have two healthy ACLs.

“She’s a very strong person,” senior guard Brianna Butler said. “I don’t know if many people can go through what she has done and been able to bounce back.”

Sykes’ style of play was perfectly molded to head coach Quentin Hillsman’s schemes: Quick feet to consistently execute defensive presses and an explosive lower body to push the ball through the paint on a fast break or in transition.

Now she admits she’s entered a right of passage as a basketball player with a repaired ACL. Sykes has become more of a shooter, lacking the same strength and trust in her legs. She’s on pace to shoot and make more 3-pointers than she ever has before, and her shooting tendencies will carry onward to Syracuse’s (15-6, 5-3 Atlantic Coast) matchup at No. 17 Miami (17-3, 5-2) on Monday at 7 p.m.

“I had no choice (after my second ACL tear) but to make sure I keep working on my shot,” Sykes said before the season. “… I just wanted to improve on something in my game that wasn’t my strong suit.”

But the transition from her prolific ability to drive to the rim hasn’t been smooth, and Sykes is staring at a field-goal percentage down 20 percent from her last full season. She recently posted an 0-for-8 shooting night against the Cardinals, and has played eight other games this year when she’s made two or fewer shots.

In the waning minutes before playing the Eagles on Wednesday, Hillsman told Sykes to “reintroduce yourself to these people who think you’re not an All-American anymore.”

“And then she did,” Hillsman said after Sykes’ 13-point performance against BC.

“Sometimes you (don’t) necessarily lose who you are, but forget the type of player you are,” Sykes said. “But (Hillsman’s talk) helped me out a lot and it really did bring me back to how I used to be.”

 

Sabrina Koenig | Staff Photographer

 

Senior guard Cornelia Fondren still recalls watching the 2012 McDonald’s All-America Girl’s Game featuring two of her future teammates, Butler and Sykes, and being amazed at the latter’s athletic ability.

She had never played with anyone who could shoot mid-range shots, get to the basket and block shots like Sykes could.

“It was different seeing a 5-9 guard that can grab rim or dunk,” Fondren said.

And as the two players have grown together over the past four years, she knows Sykes’ game well enough to see she’s played more cautiously this year. There’ve been lapses, like when Sykes sprawled onto the floor to corral a turnover against Jacksonville on Dec. 21, in a game she recorded a double-double in.

Fondren told Sykes after the play not to worry about her ACL, “just play.” And it’s exactly what Sykes has done, starting every one of SU’s 21 games this season.

Her 16.6 points per game average of two years ago isn’t a realistic mark anymore. But Sykes has reapplied herself as a mid-range and long-range scorer, one who takes advantage of outdated scouting reports trying to prevent her from driving the paint.

“What she’s doing is taking what the defense gives her,” Hillsman said. “All we ask her to do is be aggressive and attack the offense, and take what they give her.”

Published on January 31, 2016 at 10:08 pm

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman