Alyssa Thomas dribbled across midcourt after a steal before she tripped and her right knee banged off the Carrier Dome floor with 15:44 remaining in the second half against Syracuse. The Terrapins women’s basketball forward grimaced as she lay on the court for several minutes, and she headed toward the bench with a slight limp.

Less than two minutes later, though, the national player of the year candidate returned to the game and finished off another stellar performance, recording her third triple-double of the season and fifth of her career.

Thomas’ showing, along with guard Lexie Brown’s career-high 31 points, helped the No. 8 Terps beat Syracuse, 89-61, yesterday to end a three-game losing streak and get their ACC campaign back on track.

“Obviously, A.T. is so smooth in terms of her ability to be able to go out and get triple-doubles like they’re really easy,” coach Brenda Frese said.

Thomas had 11 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, while Brown shot 7-of-8 from three-point range and added seven assists.

During their losing streak, the Terps struggled to get off to good starts, which led to close contests and tough losses. But against Syracuse, which was coming off a 78-73 upset win at No. 6 North Carolina on Thursday, the Terps trailed for less than two minutes and shot better than 61 percent from the field.

“By far, our most complete, dominant 40-minute game,” Frese said.

After struggling to assert themselves in the paint against N.C. State on Thursday, the Terps interior offense had early success against Syracuse. The Orange’s zone defense couldn’t stop the Terps from firing passes into the lane for layups, and the Terps scored 22 points in the paint in the first half.

In order to keep the Terps outside, Syracuse’s defense began to play a half-court trap more often as the half continued, but the pressure opened more opportunities from three-point range. The Terps (17-4, 5-3 ACC) entered the break with a 46-29 lead over the Orange (16-6, 5-4 ACC), shooting 5-of-8 from beyond the arc in the final 11-and-a-half minutes before halftime.

Brown and guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough had 13 points each in the half, while Thomas had five points, seven rebounds and five assists. The Orange, which was 4-2 entering yesterday in games in which it trailed during halftime, looked to pull off another second-half comeback. The Terps, though, opened the second half on a 20-6 run in the first 4:15 to put the game out of reach.

“We knew Syracuse was a tremendous second-half team — their stats show that,” Frese said. “So just reminding our team at halftime, every timeout that we could, a three-point shooting team is never out, especially a team as talented as Syracuse.”

Thomas helped orchestrate the offense during the run, running fast breaks off Syracuse turnovers and finding open teammates for easy layups, and she was leading the Terps in transition when she had her scary moment in the second half.

The Terps already had a commanding 66-35 lead before her short absence, though, and the score was 66-41 by the time Thomas returned with 14:10 left in the game. From there, the Terps continued playing their sharp offense, ending the contest with 25 assists off their 35 made field goals.

“Everyone was running today, and we [had] really gotten away from that in the past couple games,” Brown said. “So it was nice to see everybody getting back and running in transition.”

With the Terps up 72-48, Thomas rifled a pass to an open Brown on the right wing, and the freshman hit a jumper for Thomas’ 10th assist of the contest, sealing the triple-double. Though Thomas said she expects to feel the effects of her hard fall today, it did not end up stopping her from turning in a performance that helped the Terps end a worrying skid.

“Just a little sore,” Thomas said. “I’m sure I’ll be stiff tomorrow, but nothing new I can’t play through.”