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Laila Phelia is not Sophie Burrows. She’s also not Madeline Potts. Through her first two games with Syracuse, Phelia shot six 3s and made just one. While Potts and Burrows haven’t fared much better from beyond the arc this season, they made triples at a 37.5% and 39.6% clip, respectively.

After Syracuse’s 64-45 win over UAlbany last Friday, Syracuse assistant coach Khyreed Carter made that fact crystal clear. He told Phelia she can’t shoot 3-pointers until she can make a mid-range consistently. She understood the message loud and clear.

“I feel like I was trying to be like Sophie and Maddie,” Phelia said. “So I had to take a couple of steps back.”

The Orange hadn’t shot well from 3 all season, making just three of their 22 attempts entering Tuesday. So, against Canisius, they avoided the 3-pointer entirely. In Syracuse’s (3-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) 96-72 victory over the Golden Griffins (0-3, 0-0 Metro Atlantic), it relied heavily on inside scoring, outscoring Canisius 56-30 in the paint.

Working on a heavy diet of mid-ranges and layups, Phelia, Dominique Darius and Uche Izoje all notched season-high point tallies. Phelia led the way with 22 points, while Darius and Izoje chipped in 21 and 17.

Syracuse went the entire first quarter without shooting a triple. Izoje and Phelia made no 3s, Darius made the only 3 she attempted and SU finished with a season-low nine attempts from beyond the arc. But that didn’t stop it from pouring in a season-high 96 points.

“It’s been an emphasis,” Phelia said of SU’s focus on inside scoring. “I feel like in my game, I’ve never been a 3-point scorer.”

Within the first two minutes, Phelia was going to work inside the arc. She drove to the right elbow and sank a mid-range jumper to give Syracuse a 4-2 lead. As soon as Canisius got the ball back, Darius picked Franka Wittenberg’s pocket and drove to the rim for a fastbreak layup.

It was a common trend in the first quarter: Darius steal, Phelia mid-range. On the Golden Griffins’ ensuing offensive possession, Darius snagged a takeaway from Mary Copple. The ball found its way to Phelia, who again hit a jumper from inside the arc — this time drawing an and-1.

She ended up making her next two shots. They were, unsurprisingly, both mid-ranges.

By the time the first quarter ended, Syracuse had established a commanding 32-11 lead. With none of those points coming from 3, SU outscored Canisius 20-4 in the paint through the first 10 minutes.

But Izoje wasn’t part of that early success. She scored once in the first quarter on a layup but was subbed out after five minutes. She added another layup in the second quarter, and that was the entirety of her contribution to SU’s 53-point first half.

“That was the ugliest 17 points I’ve ever seen,” Syracuse head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “This kid could score 30 points if she just stays out of foul trouble.”

Fouls have been Izoje’s Achilles’ heel in her brief career with the Orange. She entered Tuesday averaging three per game — the reason why, despite leading SU with 12.5 points per game, she averaged just 15.5 minutes.

Even against Canisius, Izoje racked up four fouls. But this time, Legette-Jack let her work through her troubles in the second half. Izoje finished the game with a career-high 23 minutes, the second-highest mark of any Syracuse player. She repaid that faith by bullying the Golden Griffins in the post throughout the second half.

Two minutes into the third quarter, Izoje backed down Ileana Feliz in the paint, released the ball and banked in a layup off the glass. Feliz was immediately called for the foul — with Izoje converting the and-1 — and she was promptly substituted out of the game.

Thirty seconds later, Izoje was back at it again, receiving a Phelia feed and banking another layup over top Wittenberg and Copple. She ended the quarter on a similar note, outmuscling Canisius’ post players for an offensive rebound and sinking a floater as time expired.

As of right now, the 3-point shot isn’t a part of Syracuse’s game. Burrows hasn’t rediscovered her touch beyond the arc — she made her first 3-pointer of the season against Canisius — but it might not matter.

Phelia and Darius have emerged as two-way threats for the Orange without potent 3-point shooting. Yet, no one exemplifies Syracuse’s reliance on inside scoring like Izoje.

In Legette-Jack’s eyes, Izoje hasn’t even scratched the surface of her potential. She’s still figuring out the collegiate game, after all. Legette-Jack says when Izoje gets subbed in off the bench, occasionally, she forgets to check in at the scorer’s table before she enters.

Legette-Jack, a psychology major, compares coaching Izoje to Ivan Pavlov’s dog experiment. SU’s coaches just have to condition her fouling tendencies out of her, she contends, and they have to do it ad nauseam.

Because eventually, the stimulus will click. Izoje won’t risk fouling out, and she’ll get to play 25 minutes consistently, just like Phelia and Darius. And if all three of them score inside the arc, the Orange might never need to think about a 3-pointer again.

“It’s gonna be like a horse getting held by a little string,” Legette-Jack said of Izoje. “It’s not there yet, and it’s going to take as long as it takes. But she’s worth the wait.”

Published on November 12, 2025 at 12:28 am
Contact Mauricio: mjpalmar@syr.edu | @mpalmarDO