Previewing Syracuse women’s basketball’s matchup vs. Boston College
With eight conference wins under its belt, Syracuse has a chance to avenge last year’s ACC Tournament loss against Boston College. Leonardo Eriman | Senior Staff Photographer
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.
Sometimes, you just have to win ugly. Syracuse is well acquainted with that concept.
Some of its 18 wins have certainly looked pretty. There were dominant nonconference performances early — such as the Orange’s 78-29 win over Wagner or 106-40 victory against Mercyhurst — and some wire-to-wire Atlantic Coast Conference wins over teams such as Stanford and Georgia Tech.
On the other hand, some of SU’s wins have looked like someone at a party you’d rather not talk to. Syracuse’s last performance — a 65-60 win over Miami, where it shot 30% from the field — falls in the latter category.
But at the end of the day, a win is a win, and after defeating the Hurricanes, the Orange have stacked up eight in ACC play. It’s tough to call anything a guarantee in such a competitive conference, but with a Boston College squad that’s yet to win an ACC game on deck, SU has a golden opportunity to secure a ninth.
Here’s everything to know about the Eagles (4-20, 0-11 ACC) before they square off against Syracuse (18-3, 8-3 ACC):
All-time series
Syracuse leads 40-28.
Last time they played
It was the kind of game that forced Felisha Legette-Jack to take a deep reflection and reevaluate her program. After closing its regular season with an 82-57 shellacking over the Eagles on Mar. 2, 2025, SU entered the ACC Tournament with plenty of momentum.
Three days later, BC completely erased it when they met again. The Orange carried a 45-28 lead into halftime and watched it dwindle in the dying seconds of the second half, as Boston College roared back to secure a 76-73 win. It was a disappointing way to end the season, but it wasn’t a surprise. Unlike this season, SU simply wasn’t built to win.
The Eagles report
These two programs were in very similar spots when they last faced off. That couldn’t be further from the truth right now.
Unlike Syracuse, which reloaded in the offseason by adding three double-digit scorers, BC lost all five of its starters from a year ago and didn’t do nearly as good a job at replacing them. The Eagles only have one double-digit scorer this year — Lily Carmody, a Butler transfer who’s averaging 11.8 points per game.
Beyond Carmody, the cupboard is empty for BC head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee. Four of the Eagles’ five primary starters this year are scoring fewer than 8.0 points per game, and three of them are shooting below 38% from the field. Their paint presence is absolutely nonexistent as well — Boston College has no players averaging more than five rebounds or 0.3 blocks per game.
There are 18 teams in the ACC. Two of them have Simple Rating System scores in the negatives. BC is one of them, and if there’s any saving grace for the Eagles, it’s that their SRS of negative 4.5 just barely edges out Pitt’s negative 7.9 mark thus far this season.
How Syracuse beats Boston College
Is it fair to say that just showing up is enough?
There’s really no conceivable way for Syracuse to lose to BC. The Eagles haven’t yet beaten a team with an SRS above negative 9.00 — SU currently sits at 20.95. These programs are on two different planes of existence right now, and it seems unfair to even consider them conference foes.
Do the Orange want Uche Izoje to do the heavy lifting? Sure, why not? BC’s average of 1.1 blocks per game ranks 361st out of 363 Division I teams. Not much the Eagles can do there.
Does SU want to fire from deep, letting Sophie Burrows and Laila Phelia test their marksmanship? Again, it’s not like the Eagles can stop it. They allow their opponents to make triples at a 33.9% clip, a mark which ranks 336th in the nation.
It’s a matchup reminiscent of Chris Webber on NBA TV in 2013, previewing a contest between the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks. On the chyron to his left, there are three “keys to victory” he has selected for the Heat.
Chris Webber: The Analyst of the Year! #LeBronJames pic.twitter.com/9W6sTK7Bsv
— NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) November 20, 2013
Replace LeBron with Syracuse, and the message is otherwise unchanged.
Stat to know: 47.8%
As previously mentioned in this article, there are 363 D-I women’s basketball teams. Boston College ranks 361st in opponents’ field-goal percentage.
Only Mercyhurst — which Syracuse defeated by 60 in December — and an 0-22 Niagara squad rank below the Eagles in that category. There’s plenty of revealing statistics when it comes to BC, but if that’s any indication, SU could be in for a record-breaking offensive performance.
Player to watch: Uche Izoje, center, No. 44
There is no one who really garners much attention in BC, so fans would be better advised to spend their time fixating on Izoje. The freshman phenom is coming off one of her worst performances of the season against Miami’s Ra Shaya Kyle, shooting 3-for-12 and fouling out after scoring six points.
It’ll be intriguing to see how Izoje responds. Entering the matchup averaging 14.2 points and 9.5 boards a game, against an Eagles squad that has no real paint presence, it’s a mismatch that she’s well-equipped to exploit.
