Syracuse rides best defensive performance since 2014 to 78-29 win over Wagner
Syracuse's 29 points allowed was its lowest since 2014, leading to a 49-point win over Wagner and a 4-0 start to the season. Griffin Uribe Brown | Social Media Editor
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Dominique Darius wasn’t happy, but on the surface, it seemed like she had no reason to be frustrated. It was halftime of Syracuse’s dominant 96-72 win over Canisius on Tuesday, and the Orange were up big — 53 to 34, in fact. They hadn’t truly been threatened at any point in the contest.
And yet, if you listened in to SU’s locker room at the half, you could hear Darius absolutely ripping into her teammates. Syracuse guard Olivia Schmitt said it was a side of Darius she had never seen before. The Orange had been outscored 23-21 across the second quarter, and they were 20 minutes away from giving up over 70 points to a Canisius team that hadn’t scored more than 40 in a game all season.
Since transferring in from USC, Darius has become Syracuse’s de facto defensive captain. She entered Sunday tied for the team-lead with 2.7 steals per game. She’s the one who’s often holding her teammates accountable, ensuring they maintain their defensive intensity. She’s only been at SU for four games, but she is already one of its most respected locker room leaders.
So, at the half of SU’s win over Canisius, when Darius essentially challenged her teammates to “get their you-know-what together” defensively, they truly had no choice but to respond.
And they did, in perhaps the most emphatic way they could’ve. The game after Darius’ halftime tirade, Syracuse answered her call to action by holding Wagner to a season-low 29 points in its fourth consecutive win. The Orange (4-0, Atlantic Coast) defeated the Seahawks (1-3, Northeast) 78-29 on Sunday. The 49-point margin of victory was the most dominant of SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack’s tenure. It was the first time Syracuse had held an opponent to under 30 points since Dec. 14, 2014, when it held North Carolina Central to 25.
“Seeing the way we have leaders who want it really badly for us, it makes the energy trickle down to the whole team,” Schmitt said postgame. “Coming into this game, we knew we needed to make a statement.”
The Orange made more than a statement against Wagner. They put together the kind of performance Legette-Jack has been waiting all year to see.
Defense has always been a point of emphasis for her teams, but it’s become the Orange’s primary focus this year. At the ACC Tipoff, Legette-Jack said she focused on recruiting defense out of the transfer portal. When Syracuse defeated UAlbany 64-45 on Nov. 7, she wasn’t satisfied with the 19-point win. The Orange gave up 27 points in the fourth quarter, and Legette-Jack wanted to see them continue to maintain the pressure they had established in the previous three quarters.
It was a similar refrain on Tuesday. After Syracuse defeated Canisius, Legette-Jack said she wanted to see the Orange improve upon their player-to-player defense going forward. It was difficult for even Legette-Jack to contend that it hadn’t improved on Sunday.
“We got better,” Legette-Jack said postgame. “But we still have a long way to go.”
She accomplished that by having her team scrimmage the scout team throughout the week.
The Orange have talented scout guys, many of whom could be on scholarship playing varsity basketball at smaller colleges, Legette-Jack said. In scrimmages, they were tasked with pushing Syracuse to the limit all week. Legette-Jack knows they aren’t going to go easy on her players, and they’re not going to relinquish anything to them.
So, when Legette-Jack saw her players lock down the scout team in the days leading into SU’s contest against the Seahawks, she had a good feeling about Sunday.
It wasn’t hard to see why. From the first tip, Syracuse guards hounded the Seahawks on the perimeter, while its post players matched that aggression in the paint.
Wagner point guard Keana Foz had an especially difficult time, going just 2-10 while turning the ball over seven times. The Orange forced 23 turnovers on the day, saw nine different players record a steal and held Wagner to a paltry 20.7% field goal percentage. It was akin to a nightmare the Seahawks couldn’t wake up from.
Uche Izoje began the game by knocking the first tip out of bounds, giving Wagner possession. Soon after, Foz got the Seahawks on the board with a layup just 15 seconds into the game.
Wagner didn’t score again until Maria Doreste canned a layup with two minutes left in the first quarter. SU closed the first quarter up 22-4, and everything simply snowballed from there.
“Once we start out going hot, it just trickles down the rest of the roster, and you’re going to see an amazing start to finish,” Syracuse forward Jasmyn Cooper said.
The most offensive success the Seahawks would see was in the second quarter, with 13 points. In every other quarter, Wagner was held to a single-digit point tally, scoring just four points in the third and eight points in the fourth.
Just like it has in previous games, SU’s defensive effort led to offensive opportunities. With six minutes left in the first, Darius pickpocketed a Wagner player and finished a fastbreak layup to extend the Orange’s lead to six points. Cooper did the same in the second, knocking the ball out of Doreste’s hand and getting it out to Burrows for a layup. The Orange outscored Wagner 28-6 on points from turnovers, nearly outscoring the Seahawks’ 29 total points on the day.
It might have been the best defensive performance of the Legette-Jack era. She knows that the job isn’t finished, though. Syracuse’s head coach felt like her team fouled too much — giving up 17 of them — and she wants her defenders to keep their hands up and stay in front of the players they are guarding.
But that’s an issue for another day. Today, all fifteen of Syracuse’s players played. They had fun. And they maintained their defensive effort throughout all forty minutes. That’s about all she could really ask for, isn’t it?
Tonight, Legette-Jack will get to go home. She’ll lay down in her bed, she’ll fall soundly asleep, and it will be a glorious night of sleep. The rare kind you have when you miraculously find a moment of peace, and there is absolutely nothing in the world that could trouble you right then.
