For Brianna Butler, the pressure that comes with becoming a team’s primary scoring option is nothing new.

During a stint with the AAU team Exodus NYC, Butler was in a supporting role behind guards Bria Hartley and Jennifer O’Neill — McDonald’s All-Americans and the team’s go-to scorers.

But Hartley left for Connecticut and O’Neill for Kentucky in the same summer, leaving Butler with the ball.

“I had to really step up, pick up the slack and become more of a leader,” Butler said.

And it’s a similar predicament to the one Butler currently faces.

No. 23 Syracuse (1-0) will travel to face Duquesne (0-1) at the A.J. Palumbo Center in Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, and Brittney Sykes will still be recovering from her torn right ACL and meniscus. Since Sykes was the Orange’s leading scorer last season, defenses will now focus on Butler, now a junior, who was SU’s second-leading scorer from a year ago.

“She’s going to have to shoot the ball for us,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said at the team’s media day on Oct. 17.

Hillsman and SU forward Taylor Ford, a teammate of Butler’s on Exodus NYC and at Nazareth (New York) High School, knows opponents will shade defensive sets toward Butler’s side of the floor.

But Ford’s seen Butler prepare for the increased attention. Over the years, Ford said, Butler has quickened her shooting release so defenders can’t get set.

“The timing of (her shot) is ridiculous,” Ford said.

At Nazareth, Butler’s practice routine included a shooting drill in which she received passes and took jump shots without looking at the passer. Regardless of where she was on the floor or where the passes came from, Butler’s eyes were fixated on the basket.

“I’ve never seen anybody ever do that before,” said teammate Sadie Edwards, now a guard at Connecticut. “To this day, I haven’t seen anybody do it. She would do that and make six, seven, eight, nine, 10. All net. Any time you can shoot like that, it’s a rare thing.”

Edwards said that even though Nazareth had a roster filled with skilled players, coaches challenged Butler in particular.

With Butler, Edwards and fellow transfer Destini Feagin initially ruled ineligible for inadequate proof of parental change of address, the trio couldn’t practice with the team.

But Butler continued to put up extra shots in the gym and work on her handles. At Nazareth, Feagin said, coach Robert “Apache” Paschall called Butler the “silent assassin.”

“I think that’s something that people haven’t maybe seen a lot of from her, but she can really handle the ball,” Edwards said. “… What’s so dangerous about her is that she can hit a pull-up jump shot, too. If you bite on the first move and you’re on your heels, she will make that shot.”

Last season for the Orange, Butler scored a career-high 29 points when it upset No. 12 Texas A&M, scored 25 in a loss to No. 24 Arizona State and scored 22 in an upset of No. 6 North Carolina. Without Sykes in the team’s five-point loss to No. 10 Kentucky in the Round of 32, Butler scored a team-high 15.

“She got very few wide-open looks as we got to the second half of our conference schedule,” Hillsman said. “After that Texas A&M game, it was over for her getting clean, open looks at the basket. She had a tremendous year playing in the mid-range and also getting to the rim and also creating opportunities for her teammates.”

Last season, Butler averaged 14.5 points a game and led SU in scoring 14 times, taking 69 more shots and playing 79 more minutes than any other player. She was also first on the team in steals and second on the team in assists per game.

In SU’s 2014 season opener on Sunday against Fordham, the junior played through a bruised left knee she suffered last week in practice and scored five points in an SU win.

It was only a slight glimpse of Butler’s potential as the Orange waits for Sykes to return.

“She’ll rise to the occasion and be a great leader,” Edwards said. “There was never a challenge that was too great for her. I think she’ll turn a lot of heads and show how special of a player she really is.”

Published on November 19, 2014 at 12:15 am

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