Brittney Sykes’ aggression wasn’t there, and neither was Syracuse’s defensive effort.

So Quentin Hillsman let his team know it in the locker room at halftime.

“We cannot win with you scoring three points in a half,” Hillsman told his leading scorer. He then directed his attention to the whole team. “This ain’t about basketball right now. It’s about your heart and your guts, and about you being a team and about you wanting to win this basketball game.”

After a first half in which Sykes only took two shots and Clemson shot 67 percent from the floor, the Orange pulled off a turnaround in seemingly a heartbeat. Suddenly, the sound of Hillsman’s angry voice echoing throughout the Carrier Dome had been replaced by the joy of the SU bench and its crowd of 342. Behind a run of 18 unanswered in the span of just 2:40, the Orange (14-5, 3-3 Atlantic Coast) drove past the Tigers (9-11, 1-5) on Thursday night by a score of 84-75.

As the Orange defense clamped down late, Sykes rediscovered her scoring prowess to drop 15 second-half points. Sophomore Taylor Ford came off the bench to rack up a career-high 19 points, including 11 in the second frame. Their performances erased a sluggish first 20 minutes of basketball in which Clemson hit its first five 3-pointers and killed SU on the inside for 24 points in the paint.

“I didn’t talk about X’s and O’s at halftime,” Hillsman said. “It’s about effort and your attitude and your will to win. Because when you’re in a spot that you are supposed to be in in your defense and you give up a 3 or give up a layup, it’s about effort and will.”

Even for the first 12 minutes of the second half, the Orange couldn’t string anything together. SU trailed by three coming out of the break. It managed to take the lead twice, but found itself down by six points at the 7:56 mark.

But Syracuse compensated for its lack of assertion with three plays of pure aggression, and an 18-0 spurt was born.

Briana Day jumpstarted it with a strong post move for a short jumper. At the other end, Brianna Butler grabbed a defensive rebound and chucked it ahead to Sykes, who put it on the floor once and elevated from the middle of the paint. The short jumper fell to the sound of a whistle and her three-point play drew SU within one.

The Orange’s full-court press forced an overthrown pass, which Rachel Coffey scooped up at half court and tossed to Butler in the corner. Butler took a dribble toward half court to dodge a defender, found her spot on the wing and drilled a pull-up 3 to jump ahead, 66-64.

“You have those moments in the game where it all just comes together,” Sykes said. “We had those key steals, those key rebounds and Brianna hitting the 3, it just gives us momentum into that 18-0 run.”

Three points from Ford and a short Butler jumper extended the surge, and Coffey capped it with a layup and 3-pointer – both off turnovers – 14 seconds apart as the Orange opened up a 12-point advantage.

It was all made possible by SU’s dominance on the defensive end, where the Tigers coughed up 15 of their 22 turnovers in the second half – including a stretch of nine turnovers in 11 possessions.

“We were able to get our traps,” Butler said, “and we were able to make Clemson play out of their element and get them to turn the ball over.”

Clemson suddenly couldn’t solve the Orange’s full-court pressure, and it showed in its traveling violation, awry passes that SU deflected and the Tigers’ overall unawareness of where Syracuse’s defenders were coming from next.

After connecting on a phenomenal 18-of-27 shots for 67 percent to start, Clemson was humbled to a sub-40 percent clip in the second half, and 2-of-10 from 3-point range.

Hillsman, sitting at the podium during his postgame press conference, admitted there was no formula to Syracuse’s second-half performance.

His halftime speech just struck the right nerve.

“I wish I could say I made this ‘masterful’ adjustment. There was no adjustment,” Hillsman said. “I said, ‘Your heart and your attitude and your effort are going to win this game, and you guys got to fix it.’

“And they did.”