Quentin Hillsman was more than happy to get a win Monday night. But the Syracuse head coach had no qualms calling out his team’s toughness in a back-and-fourth victory against Temple.

“We’ve got to become a tougher basketball team,” Hillsman told Orange All-Access after the game. “That’s it. We can’t give up offensive rebounds. We can’t let teams put the ball on the floor and have straight line drives right to our paint. Those are things that we have to correct.”

Despite a nerve-racking near-collapse in the second half, No. 23 Syracuse (9-1), was able to fend off a pesky Temple (5-3) team, 82-76, at the Carrier Dome on Monday night in front of 223 fans.

The Orange, which boasted an 18-point first-half cushion, saw it all evaporate with a 23-4 second-half run by Temple. After a Shakeya Leary layup put Syracuse up 47-34 with just over 19 minutes to play in the second, the Owls needed only eight minutes to turn the score into a 57-51 Temple advantage.

Syracuse’s inability to hold a lead reared its head the last time the Orange took the court, when it let a 12-point second-half advantage turn into a six-point loss to then-No. 25 Iowa on Dec. 5. The difference this time out was Syracuse was able to respond on the offensive end.

Immediately following the mammoth Temple run, the Orange put together a 17-2 stretch to regain control.

Brianna Butler was the catalyst, knocking down three 3-pointers in less than two minutes to put SU back in front for good.

“I looked up at the scoreboard and I noticed we were down,” Butler told Orange All-Access. “And I knew I needed to hit big shots and help my team, and I made them, knocked them down. It’s just good. After I hit the first one, I just got into my zone.”

Butler finished with 13 points. She shot 4-18 from the field overall and aside from her three clutch second-half 3s, she was 0-6 from behind the arc. Leary, who totaled a career-high 24 points and 13 rebounds, led Syracuse offensively.

The senior center proved to be the first-half spark plug, scoring 18 points in the first stanza, including four of the first eight Syracuse points to help the Orange race out to an early 11-0 lead.

“I’ve got to be an offensive threat to help my team,” Leary told Orange All-Access. “I just try and get deep post position, and basically just play off my defender.”

The win avenged last year’s loss to Temple, when Syracuse blew a 14-point lead en route to its first loss of the 2012-13 season. But even with the Syracuse win Monday, Hillsman said this game exposed his team’s weaknesses.

“We’ve got to do a much better job of having leads like that,” Hillsman said, “closing out halves, and coming out in second halves ready to play.
“We have to do that.”