The whistle blew on Shakeya Leary for the third time and forced her to take a seat on Syracuse’s bench 5:29 into the second half.

As she walked off the court with three fouls to her name, the Orange’s hopes of an upset left with her.

Syracuse (22-9, 10-6 Atlantic Coast) looked prime to upend No. 14 North Carolina State (25-6, 11-5) on Friday afternoon, but SU’s interior defense collapsed and the Wolfpack prevailed, 79-63, in Greensboro, N.C. Fourth-seeded N.C. State advances to the semifinals of the ACC tournament while the Orange has to wait for the NCAA selection show in 10 days to find out its next opponent.

“We learned a lot from our first ACC tournament,” SU guard Brittney Sykes said in the postgame press conference. “ … I think we’re well prepared going into the NCAA tournament.”

N.C. State forward Kody Burke finished with 21 points and 16 rebounds and 6-foot-5 center Markeisha Gatling dropped a career-high 28 points.

An 18-4 explosion sprung Syracuse ahead in the first half, erasing an early deficit to take a seven-point lead into halftime. The Orange shot 43.8 percent – hitting six 3s – and its effective full-court press disrupted NCSU’s offense into eight turnovers.

Still, the Wolfpack was able to grab sufficient offensive rebounds to clean up its misses and stay within striking distance of Syracuse. Leary kept Syracuse afloat on the defensive glass, but it all came undone when Briana Day had to replace Leary in the middle.

SU sophomore Brianna Butler canned a deep 3 4:25 into the second half to give the Orange a nine-point lead, tying SU’s largest of the game.

But Leary came out at the 11:04 mark, and Gatling exploited her absence for a couple of buckets with Day a step behind her. After the second basket, Hillsman called timeout and furiously walked right up to Day as she headed toward SU’s bench.

“(Gatling’s) an unbelievable post presence,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said in the postgame press conference. “And she did a very good job of getting deep post position in the second half. She had a monster second half, no doubt about that.”

Burke’s 3 put NCSU up 49-48, and the Wolfpack scored on seven of its next eight possessions. Leary came back in for Day, but committed her fourth foul 1:08 later and went to the bench again.

Three extended stoppages due to power issues in Greensboro Coliseum totaling more than 10 minutes long didn’t deter N.C. State from its 25-1 run. Gatling and Burke tallied 22 of those points, 16 of which came in the paint.

N.C. State outrebounded SU 28-20 in the second half, and grabbed 10 offensive boards to SU’s nine defensive rebounds.

At the other end, nothing fell for Syracuse. Sixteen shots went awry before a Day layup ended the drought, but SU still trailed by 13 with 7:44 left and wouldn’t draw any closer than nine points the rest of the way.

“The biggest thing that went wrong is we didn’t score,” Hillsman said. “If we continued to score being up seven, it would be a different ballgame.”

Published on March 7, 2014 at 4:59 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb