Syracuse gets routed from start to finish in 82-69 loss to NC State
Although Syracuse cut a 19-point deficit to six in the third quarter, it still fell to NC State 82-69 Sunday in Raleigh, North Carolina. Courtesy of SU Athletics
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Syracuse was still searching for that breakthrough. In a season full of triumphs, it’s one of the few things the Orange hadn’t found before Sunday. A 19-point victory over Virginia in January was their signature statement.
But at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, North Carolina, a bigger and badder challenge lay ahead. On paper, NC State is nothing special. Its record was worse than SU’s, and it entered Sunday off two straight losses.
Yet three months ago, Wes Moore’s squad was nearing the top of the women’s basketball world, opening its season as the ninth-ranked team in the country after a Sweet 16 exit in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. To SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack, NC State was a group of “killers.”
Well, it turns out, the Wolfpack (18-9, 11-5 Atlantic Coast) still has some of that top-10 mojo left in them. And they proved it Sunday, with a wire-to-wire 82-69 rout of Syracuse (21-6, 11-5 Atlantic Coast).
“We knew (NC State) was gonna bring it,” Legette-Jack said postgame. “We should’ve been more ready to understand the wrath of that resistance.”
Legette-Jack has said time and time again her team needs to punch first. It’s more important against teams like NC State, which were once ranked and may still carry some of that juice. A previously-ranked Duke team grabbed an 11-point halftime lead over SU, plus then-No. 6 Michigan and then-No. 6 Louisville led by double-digits less than 10 minutes in.
Syracuse had to punch first, and more specifically, punch the Wolfpack in the mouth. In this case, the “mouth” is NC State’s core four of Khamil Pierre, Zoe Brooks, Zamareya Jones and Tilda Trygger, who have led the Wolfpack in scoring in all but one game.
On Sunday, the quartet couldn’t be contained. Pierre dropped a team-high 25 points, while her three counterparts combined for 48. Meanwhile, SU was a one-woman show. Per usual, Uche Izoje was the virtuoso.
Izoje went nip and tuck with Pierre down low, also navigating the 6-foot-6 Trygger. She became the sole factor keeping Syracuse afloat in Sunday’s defeat, nabbing her 11th double-double on 26 points and 14 rebounds.
“She’s a winner,” Legette-Jack said of SU’s freshman phenom. “She rises to the challenge. She is a kid that came here with the idea she could be something significant under our tutelage. And she has walked into that situation time and time again.”
Legette-Jack can praise Izoje over and over, but she was the only one worth a compliment Sunday. The Orange’s bench didn’t score for the first time since Feb. 2, 2025, against Virginia, while Dominique Darius was SU’s only other player with more than 15 points (19).
Syracuse guard Dominique Darius managed 19 points, six rebounds and four assists in the Orange’s defeat at NC State Saturday. Courtesy of SU Athletics
SU’s lack of depth allowed the Wolfpack to jump out to a 7-2 lead as they outdueled Izoje on the glass with 10 first-quarter rebounds to SU’s seven. Trygger — five points on five field goal attempts — received open look after open look in the first nine minutes, yet Pierre was repeatedly left unguarded, too.
The Wolfpack went on a 7-0 run to build a 20-14 lead before the first media timeout with one and a half minutes to go in the first quarter. At that point, there’d already been seven lead changes, and Pierre had paired with Trygger for more than half of NC State’s points (11-of-20).
But as previously mentioned, the Wolfpack is more than just Pierre and Trygger. While SU went five minutes without a basket to close the first quarter, NC State ignited on a 13-0 run to take a 26-14 lead into the second frame. The Wolfpack’s quad combined for all of its points.
Syracuse had previously struggled in first quarters, most notably against Louisville and ACC bottom-feeder Pitt, but it always dug itself out of the hole. However, NC State was a different animal.
The Wolfpack had no trouble forcing stops to open the second frame, even forcing a shot clock violation after an Olivia Schmitt airballed 3 and a Sophie Burrows turnover for a five-point burst.
NC State’s lead grew to 35-16 before Izoje provided Syracuse a spark with a turnaround jumper off a Wolfpack shot clock violation and jumped a pass, which she pushed the other way for a corner mid-range, her 10th point.
But a promising outing for Syracuse continued to diminish. Izoje was SU’s only scorer for a 10-minute period, spanning from the 5:11 mark of the first quarter to 4:38 left in the second.
“We kept getting punched in the mouth,” Legette-Jack said regarding Syracuse’s early struggles. “We were better than this.”
As the Wolfpack took 46 points — the most Syracuse had allowed in a first half this season — into the break, confusion surrounded how SU’s deficit had heightened. It matched NC State with 31 shot attempts in the first 20 minutes and was shooting a modest 42%.
But Syracuse needed to return to its identity, which centers around the charity stripe — its 12.8 made free throws per game rank fifth in the ACC; and the key — its 42.7 rebounds rank third.
Laila Phelia checked both of those boxes with an and-one layup, and Burrows followed with a free throw and a 3-pointer, her first points of the afternoon to open the third quarter. Within moments, SU’s deficit had dwindled to 10. Then eight after another Burrows triple. Then seven after an Izoje make from 17 feet out.
Legette-Jack said her squad responded accordingly, but the flurry only materialized when it was faced with adversity. At that point, it was too late. A technical foul on Journey Thompson turned the tide back to NC State, which expanded its lead back to 13 by the third quarter’s end.
The Wolfpack’s straightforward game plan to get the ball to Pierre, Brooks and Trygger couldn’t be halted. The trio combined for 59 of NC State’s 82 points by the final whistle. For SU, outside of Izoje, Burrows, Phelia and Darius combined for 27.5% shooting (11-of-40).
It was just one of those days for Syracuse where nothing really went right, and — after just its sixth loss of the season — it’s still searching for the resume-booster that’ll solidify a trip to the Big Dance.
