Syracuse will play in its first-ever Elite Eight on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at the Denny Sanford Premier Center. The No. 4 seed Orange (28-7, 13-3 Atlantic Coast) will take on No. 7 seed Tennessee (22-13, 8-8 Southeastern) with a chance to reach the Final Four, a destination the Lady Vols have reached 18 times. SU, meanwhile, has won 14 of its last 15 games and is on a historic postseason run.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Volunteers.

All-time series history: Tennessee leads 1-0

Last time they played: The Volunteers snuck past the Orange with a 57-55 win at home in SU’s second game of the season on Nov. 20. SU took a one-point lead with 1:53 left in the third quarter, but Tennessee quickly got it back 30 seconds later and never trailed in the fourth. Syracuse tied the game at 55 on an Abby Grant 3-pointer with 5:12 left but Bashaara Graves made a layup with 2:48 remaining to account for the game’s final points. In the final three minutes, Syracuse missed five jump shots and Brittney Sykes missed two potential game-tying free throws with six seconds left on the clock.

“We were just missing shots. They played some very good defense on us,” Orange head coach Quentin Hillsman said after the game. “We just didn’t knock (shots) down.”

Syracuse was outscored 46-18 in the paint and Graves led the way for the Volunteers with 16 points and Mercedes Russell, UT’s other big, scored 13 points. Alexis Peterson led all scorers with 19.

What could have been an impressive nonconference road victory slipped through SU’s hands.

“Rebounding and points in the paint, playing at the rim is all about toughness,” Hillsman said. “We gotta be tougher around the rim.”

The Tennessee report: Graves and Russell are the two players inside that make the Volunteers go. Against No. 3 seed Ohio State on Friday night, the duo combined for 39 points and 24 rebounds. Earlier in the season, the Volunteers struggled against zone defenses but found a way to pick apart the Buckeyes and shot 50 percent from the field. Add in 10 points and five rebounds from Diamond DeShields and Tennessee became quite dangerous. UT’s regular season was considered one of the worst, if not the worst in recent memory as it dropped out of the AP Top 25 for the first time in 31 years. It lost to LSU and Alabama, two of the worst teams in the SEC, near the end of the regular season. But since then, it’s won six of the last seven and is playing its best basketball of the season.

“Just matching their physicality. They are a lot bigger than I am personally but it doesn’t matter,” Briana Day said. “You just got to go out there and play hard regardless because if you feel intimidated, you’re going to play that way.”

How Tennessee beats Syracuse: If Graves and Russell can kick-start Tennessee’s offense, that will be the key. Syracuse outrebounded South Carolina by five and center Briana Day stayed out of foul trouble until the very end. When Day gets in foul trouble, that’s when Syracuse’s team breaks down. Opponents can beat SU in the paint and get easy shots. That means the Orange has to beat a defense that had time to set up instead of running the transition offense. By forcing opponents to rely on the perimeter, that puts SU in a position to outshoot them. Syracuse averages nearly nine 3-pointers a game and Hillsman has repeatedly said throughout the season that the Orange plans to match or win the made 3s category. Tennessee on the other hand makes just 3.6 3s per game. Its bread and butter is to go inside and that’s what it’ll need to do to beat the Orange.

Numbers to know:
5:12 — Syracuse went scoreless in the final 5:12 of its game against Tennessee in November. A streak like that down the stretch on Sunday could doom the Orange once again.

28 — The Volunteers outscored Ohio State in the paint by 28 on Friday. If it has that same success again, that could spell trouble for SU.

15.9 — Tennessee averages 15.9 turnovers per game. Add in the fact that Syracuse turns opponents over a nation-leading 24.3 times per game and SU could have a field day against the Vols.

Player to watch: Mercedes Russell

Russell was ranked as the No. 1 recruit in the 2013 class by espnW HoopGurlz and is living up to her billing in her sophomore season. She exploded for 25 points against the Buckeyes and provides an interior presence that will be hard to match. It hasn’t come back to fully cost Syracuse, but big inside presences have had success in the postseason. Albany’s Shereesha Richards had 23 points and 14 rebounds. South Carolina’s Alaina Coates had 18 points and 16 rebounds. If Russell can do what those players did, it’ll be another close game between UT and SU.

Published on March 26, 2016 at 2:39 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds