By Mike Buchanan 


Chandrea Jones looks good in orange.

At least her coaches, teammates and Syracuse supporters think so.

The Institute if Notre Dame alumnus is making waves on the basketball court at Syracuse, just as she has done at all previous venues. Jones is leading Syracuse in scoring, and led the Orange to a near upset of Connecticut, the No. 1 ranked women’s college team in the nation, on Tuesday night.

Syracuse took U-Conn (16-0, 4-0) to the limit, but ran out of clock, as the Huskies escaped with a 65-59 win. The game was played in front of a record-setting crowd of 4,221 in the Carrier Dome.

Syracuse trailed by 10 points, 61-51, with 3:43 left on the clock, and the Orange used an 8-0 run to pull within two at the 1:14 mark. Jones started the run with a three-pointer, part of her game-high 18 points. A lay-up and two free throws sealed the Connecticut win, as the nation’s top-ranked team remained unbeaten.

Syracuse is 14-3 overall and 2-2 in the Big East. Jones is a big reason for the team’s success.

The 5’6” junior guard has started all 17 games and averages 28.9 minutes per game. She is averaging 16.4 points per game and is also second on the team in rebounding with 8.0 per game; that is an amazing stat at this high a level of play, considering she is a #2 guard, and shooting guards rarely rebound at that level.

Jones has led the team in scoring 10 times this season, and has scored in double figures in 16 out of 17 games. She is shooting 40.2% from the field, 23.2% from behind the arc and 74.5% from the free throw line.

She scored 19 points in a recent 67-60 win at South Florida, including 3-4 three-pointers. Before that, she scored another 19 in an 85-75 loss to Pittsburgh. Syracuse has lost to Pitt, North Carolina and Connecticut, quality opponents indeed.

Jones posted 20 points in a December win over Louisville, when she and Angel McCoughtry (St. Frances) went at it, reminiscent of former IAAM days when IND and St. Frances battled it out.

Jones opened the season by being named MVP of the Taco Bell Warhawk Classic back in early December.

Syracuse Head Coach Quentin Hillsman recruited Jones off the campus of Odessa Junior College in Texas, where Jones led the Lady Wranglers to last year’s JUCO national championship. She was MVP of the national tourney and later named first-team All-American. She led Odessa to a 34-1 record the year before and the team finished as National Runners-Up that season. In her two years at the school, Odessa went 66-3, with a first and second national finish.

Of course, the current Division 1 stand-out was a former star right here in Baltimore, where she was a four-time All-Metro selection at IND. She averaged 23.3 points per game as a senior and 21.4 for her career, finishing with 2,252 points in her stellar high school career.

IND’s loss was Odessa’s gain … and Odessa’s loss was Syracuse’s gain.

Syracuse is climbing the polls, having been rated 27th in the most recent USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, and will likely climb even higher after the impressive effort versus U-Conn.

While opposing coaches are seeing red while Jones pours in the points, she and Syracuse supporters are only seeing orange.