A nice week for the Orange
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Felisha Legette-Jack knew in the morning before her Syracuse Orange’s Sunday afternoon game against Wake Forest that her team didn’t have its best stuff.
“We didn’t shoot around well today,” Legette-Jack said. “I thought that we were flat, and I shared that with (the team) during shootaround.”
But her team found a way. The Orange (10-13, 4-8) battled back from 12 points down in the second quarter, cutting the lead to five at halftime, and tying the game in the final seconds of the third. In the fourth, Syracuse pulled away, defeating Wake Forest 62-50 for back-to-back wins for just the second time this season.
Coming off of the most efficient offensive performance of Legette-Jack’s tenure as head coach – scoring 93 points in a 69 possession game, defeating Virginia Tech 93-87 – Syracuse scored just .91 points per possession on Sunday. The Orange scored nine points in the game’s first five minutes, with Georgia Woolley establishing the drive by getting to the rim twice, but stalled out for the rest of the opening quarter.
Wake Forest got whatever it wanted in the paint, establishing deep post positioning with Demeara Hinds and Malaya Cowles as it opened up a 17-9 lead with a quick 8-0 run.
“We were standing behind her and letting her catch it,” Legette-Jack said. “That’s not who we are. They did an amazing job of fighting hard for that positioning, and we had to battle that aggressiveness.”
The Demon Deacons did finish with 36 points in the paint, but a ton of that damage came early in the game. Syracuse battled much harder down low by the end of second quarter, even after falling behind by 12 thanks to two threes from Raegyn Conley.
Midway through the second, after a three by Sophie Burrows trimmed Wake’s lead to nine, the Orange sent a double team into the post and blocked Hinds’ layup. From that point forward, it became more difficult for the Deacs to enter the ball into the post, and Syracuse continued to cut into the lead, coming within three in the final minute of the half.
However, Wake Forest pacified Syracuse’s momentum heading into halftime, as Rylie Theuerkauf grabbed an offensive rebound and threw up a mid-range fadeaway jumper that went in at the buzzer, to restore a five-point edge.
All things considered, to be down by just five points was a decent spot for Syracuse. The Orange weren’t especially crisp offensively, and had given up far too many easy baskets. And Syracuse responded with a gritty second half, still lacking its absolute best stuff.
“We just couldn’t get our legs underneath us,” Legette-Jack said. “We just kept pouring into it…. loved the fact that we didn’t drop our head when we heard tough news about how our effort wasn’t good enough.”
The game slowed down in the third quarter, and every possession’s importance magnified as the Orange inched back to tie the game at 39 with a Burrows layup in the final minute of the quarter. However, Syracuse once again couldn’t finish the quarter, and gave up a possession and a basket to fall behind by two points heading into the last ten.
Finally, the Orange took the lead early in the fourth quarter on an and-1 by Kyra Wood, but Wake Forest didn’t go away, taking the lead back with five minutes left. Syracuse strung together stops, and took a 49-48 lead on a layup by Burrows, and extended it to two possessions a minute later with a three from Woolley in the corner.
With its easy offense at the rim startled, Wake Forest turned the ball over at a high rate in the fourth quarter, ending possessions before they had a chance to cut back into the lead. Syracuse pulled away, making its free throws, to nab the win.
The Orange have won three of their last four, with the last two coming in drastically different ways.
“We’re just versatile,” Saniaa Wilson said. “We have so many players, so many options, so many assets, we’re just finding different ways to be efficient and effective.”
Woolley led the way with 21 points, as Burrows chipped in 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Syracuse goes on the road to California to take on Stanford (Thursday) and Cal (Sunday) this week.