Syracuse scrapes past Iowa State 72-63 to advance to NCAA Tournament 2nd Round
Despite ISU cutting its deficit to five in the final minutes, a 30-12 second quarter proved crucial in SU’s win. Tara Deluca | Asst. Photo Editor
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STORRS, Conn. — To Felisha Legette-Jack, basketball follows a different calendar than the rest of the world. Instead of spring, summer, fall and winter, the fourth-year head coach views time as preseason, nonconference, conference and postseason play. When you’re missing that fourth season, it badly stings. Just ask Legette-Jack, who’s gone 17 of her 23 coaching years without it.
When you do get that final season, though, you’d better make it count. Syracuse missed the NCAA Tournament in 2025 after a gloomy 12-18 campaign. Since workouts began in June, the goal has been to make it back. And there’s no better place to stamp that goal than Gampel Pavilion, home to No. 1 overall seed UConn, the winningest program in women’s basketball.
“It stuck with us for an entire year,” Legette-Jack said of not making last year’s March Madness. “Our team just went after it.”
If the Orange had simply gone after it all year, Saturday was finally the capture. No. 9 seed Syracuse (24-8, 12-6 Atlantic Coast) scraped past No. 8 seed Iowa State (22-10, 10-8 Big 12) in its largest game against, arguably, its best opponent of the season. The scoreboard, listing a 72-63 final score, only tells half the story, though.
SU’s victory over the Cyclones was truly a showing of who was the better team in the biggest moment, and Syracuse answered that question within 20 minutes.
Within the game’s back-and-forth was an enticing individual battle in the paint. Had ISU’s Audi Crooks, the undisputed top post player in the nation, met her match in SU’s Uche Izoje? From the looks of the first few minutes, there were reasons to believe she had.
Izoje opened Syracuse’s scoring with a mid-range jumper from just beyond the free-throw line. And even with the 6-foot-3 Crooks on the other side, Izoje continued to thrive.
Before the first timeout, which took place with 3:57 to go in the first quarter, Izoje had tried four shots, knocking down three of them, to boost SU’s narrow 9-8 lead. Crooks, on the other hand, smirked on the Cyclones’ bench after being replaced due to an early foul.
Legette-Jack said Friday she doesn’t have a go-to player. Despite Izoje’s astounding 15.5 points per game and 55.6% field-goal clip, she was taken out as soon as Crooks reentered. Legette-Jack knew she had to keep her big fresh, especially in a game of Saturday’s magnitude.
Although questions have surrounded the Orange’s depth all season, especially since Dominique Darius’ injury, Legette-Jack silenced them the moment Oyindamola Akinbolawa, who’d played just 5.4 minutes per game, took Izoje’s place.
It was a risk that appeared foolish, but March is where magic happens, and Akinbolawa, alongside her common bench counterparts in Olivia Schmitt, Maddy Potts and Journey Thompson, proved it.
“This is a team that wants greatness, and they’re doing everything in their power to become,” Legette-Jack said Friday.
All four players received sufficient minutes in the first quarter, helping keep SU afloat with a 14-11 deficit. Then, the focus unexpectedly shifted to Schmitt. No disrespect to the guard, but she hadn’t seen the floor in many big moments, entering Saturday averaging 1.3 points in 11.1 minutes per game.
When the lights were brightest, though, Schmitt came through. She first sank a second-chance 3 to open the second quarter, merely tying the game at 14-14. Eight minutes later, the Orange led 39-26, almost solely because of the sophomore.
She hit another. Then another. Then three more — all before halftime. Izoje’s hands rose to her head in disbelief from the bench. Legette-Jack nonchalantly threw her fist up in the air. All while Schmitt couldn’t help but smile as she trotted backward and stroked her left hand on her right wrist, almost as if to impersonate D’Angelo Russell’s Lakers “ice in my veins” celebration.
This game wasn’t about Izoje and Crooks anymore. Instead, it was about Schmitt’s hot hand, which had SU leading 41-26 into halftime.
Early in the third, it became a bloodbath. After ISU cleared out as Laila Phelia held the ball at the right wing, she drove in, crossing left to right before kissing a step-through floater off the backboard and in. Legette-Jack put her hands in the air, as SU’s bench, for what seemed like the umpteenth time, rose in disbelief.
Syracuse could simply do no wrong. It began doubling Crooks with Izoje and Thompson, which resulted in a quick turnover three minutes into the third quarter and another trip to the bench for ISU’s center.
Crooks had 17 points midway through the third, but Iowa State’s lack of depth doomed it. At the third quarter media timeout with 4:59 to go, Jada Williams had added 12, while Addy Brown was ISU’s only other scorer with four points.
The Cyclones clawed back, and Schmitt quieted down. Crooks scored eight third-quarter points. SU’s 30-point second quarter, its fifth-most in a quarter this season, was a distant memory. But Syracuse was still in control, leading 54-42.
Ten minutes sat between SU extending its season. If one person was going to shut that down, it was Crooks. Following an Izoje pull-up jumper, Crooks matched her on the other end with a layup, her 25th point of the evening.
Izoje went to the sideline with her fourth foul with seven minutes left, a sour sight for SU, and Crooks immediately cut Syracuse’s deficit to single digits with six to go. With each tick of the clock, it seemed the Orange’s lead shrank.
It didn’t matter Sophie Burrows knocked down two 3-pointers to bring SU’s lead back to 10 points. Crooks had her way on Izoje and Thompson, dropping her 37th point to cut ISU’s deficit to five with 1:21 to go. But still, SU, capped by four Burrows free throws, squeaked past Iowa State to remain alive.
