Syracuse suffers 1st ACC loss, scores season-low 51 points in defeat to Duke
Syracuse’s six-game winning streak ended Sunday, with the Orange suffering a 71-51 loss to Duke. Matthew Crisafulli | Contributing Photographer
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Two years ago, Syracuse started its season 11-1 before suffering its first Atlantic Coast Conference loss, a 24-point defeat to North Carolina. After the game, Felisha Legette-Jack said she had a lot to learn but insisted SU was still a force to be reckoned with.
On Sunday, the Orange found themselves in a similar spot. They entered the JMA Wireless Dome on a six-game winning streak, but just hours after wearing smiles, Legette-Jack, alongside guards Dominique Darius and Laila Phelia, sat in silence.
The head coach echoed nearly the exact words she did two years prior.
“Is this a good team? Is this a team you’re gonna have to be dealing with in the ACC?” Legette-Jack said of SU. “We’re coming, and we’re gonna learn.”
Duke was Syracuse’s latest challenge. The Blue Devils began the season ranked No. 7 nationally, though four Quad 1 losses tempered expectations. However, Duke (7-6, 2-0 Atlantic Coast) still proved its mettle, downing the Orange (11-2, 1-1 ACC) 71-51 and handing SU its first home and conference loss of the season.
“This is a good team that had a tough day,” Legette-Jack said. “We didn’t make the right adjustments. Lesson learned.”
Syracuse has been taught that comfort can bring consequences. The Orange’s standard is high, with March Madness a reachable end goal and each game before it a stepping stone. But Legette-Jack’s philosophy is framed around lessons.
She reiterated during the preseason that Syracuse either wins or learns, demanding losses don’t happen when she’s around. Through 12 games, there was little to dwell on, but she still found ways to weave in that her squad had a long way to go, and its identity wasn’t solidified.
It was hard to imagine before Sunday. Aside from a 26-point loss to a top-10 Michigan team, SU had breezed through without so much as a stumble. Against Duke, though, the flaws came into focus.
Uche Izoje became Syracuse’s first player this season to foul out. A flagrant foul by Shy Hawkins flipped wavering momentum entirely onto the Blue Devils’ side. Sophie Burrows sustained a knee injury, and while she returned, she finished 1-of-10 from the field. The most minor issues from the past two months, previously easy to overlook, shaped Sunday’s result.
“We’re still a really new team, and I was telling my team, ‘This is good for us,’” Darius said. “‘The losses suck, but these are the types of losses that really build character and resilience.’”
SU’s identity starts down low. Izoje was a pleasant surprise from the international stage and earned three of the ACC’s first seven Rookie of the Week honors, but she needs to play, and fouls hinder that opportunity. Legette-Jack said her freshman big was ready to “do some fun things,” yet must do a better job of understanding the dynamics of how a game is called.
Izoje played just 18 minutes. She recorded eight points and four rebounds, leaving Duke’s All-ACC First Team forward Toby Fournier for backup center Aurora Almón to deal with.
With Izoje limited for most of Sunday’s contest, Fournier imposed her will in the paint, knocking down six of Duke’s first 19 shots, which all occurred inside.
Neither team could hit from the perimeter, and Darius’ missed 3 to start the game foreshadowed the shooting that plagued both Syracuse and Duke. The Blue Devils, who had drained just 77 3s, and the Orange, 59, combined for 4-of-26 from beyond the arc.
Syracuse still found a way to break ahead, though. An early 6-0 run gave it a 10-4 advantage, but the Blue Devils clawed back, evening the score at 14-14 10 minutes in.
Duke showed glimpses of why it was ranked so highly to start the year, while the Orange seemed to reach their peak. Almón had no answer for the 6-foot-2 Fournier, who finished with a game-high 22 points and seven rebounds. Seven points on 3-of-3 shooting for Fournier in the second quarter extended Duke’s lead to an insurmountable margin for the Orange.
“We gotta learn how to keep that one, two, three, four and finish the game like that,” Darius said. “It’s really the second quarter, I feel like we lost it because in the third and fourth quarter, we were pretty close. It’s a game of possessions. Every possession we gotta value.”
SU was outscored 19-8 in the second quarter, its worst margin since the first quarter against Michigan (20-6) on Nov. 23. The errors that doomed Syracuse continued to haunt it into the second half.
Having played man defense for the first half, SU switched to a zone. Darius said it was to give Duke a different look, stressing the Orange’s communication “wasn’t the best.” Though Syracuse forced 16 turnovers, just five came after halftime, when Duke had already put the game away.
In the final two quarters, SU couldn’t generate the momentum for a realistic comeback. Its inability to hit from deep forced Jasmyn Cooper, Journey Thompson, Keira Scott and Almón to try to beat Fournier one-on-one. The four backup bigs totaled just eight points.
“The only person that could actually eliminate that was a kid we had on the bench for 25 minutes,” Legette-Jack said of SU’s troubles inside.
The head coach avoids comparing her teams, but recalling the loss to UNC two years ago — the same season Syracuse made March Madness — was a welcome reminder: every loss carries a lesson.
Legette-Jack said one word summed it up: “unequivocally.” She’s sure Syracuse will bounce back, no questions asked.
