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Felisha Legette-Jack had never seen Laila Phelia take the ball up the court. A shooting guard most of her life, Phelia has often parked in the corners. That remained her primary role in Syracuse’s first seven games. On Wednesday, a switch flipped for the senior guard.

Phelia hadn’t hit her stride, a rarity for the guard who’d scored at least 12 points in six of her first seven appearances with the Orange. But in this instance, SU and Auburn were knotted at 58 in overtime, and Phelia only had nine points on two made field goals. Then, she took over.

“I said, ‘Go get it, Dom,’ and she said, ‘She won’t give it to me,’” Legette-Jack recalls from her conversation with Dominique Darius, SU’s starting point guard.

Phelia demanded to put the game in her hands. Syracuse should be glad she did.

First, she dribbled up the right side of the court. One on one with Auburn’s Harissoum Coulibaly, Phelia drove to the rim, forcing contact from Coulibaly while sinking the bucket. She converted her next free throw, putting SU ahead 61-58.

Twenty-nine seconds later, after Mya Petticord nailed a jumper, Phelia was in control again. With no one in the paint, Phelia hit the top of the key, spun on Coulibaly and rang home a step-in jumper, giving the Orange a game-sealing 63-60 lead.

“The fire came. And she went face-first into that fire,” Legette-Jack said of Phelia’s game-winning sequence. “She’s a bull. Just sit back, get your popcorn and say, ‘OK, take me home.’”

Phelia’s final series ultimately lifted Syracuse (7-1, Atlantic Coast) to a 66-60 overtime win over Auburn (8-2, Southeastern) in the ACC/SEC Challenge. But it wasn’t just Phelia who stepped up. Darius led the Orange with 20 points. Uche Izoje hauled in a game-high 13 rebounds. Sophie Burrows even drilled a free throw with 14.3 seconds left in the fourth quarter, and two more in overtime to seal SU’s victory.

There were many “staples.” Everyone played their part. Syracuse’s energy came from “a collective,” Legette-Jack said, and its efforts weren’t carried by one player willing it to keep fighting. They all wanted it, and they cashed in.

“This is not about basketball. It’s a microcosm of life, and we talked about for the last two days: ‘This is your story, this is your journey and no one shows up to cheer you on,’” Legette-Jack said. “‘Let them know your story. What is it? What’s it about?’ It’s their time to tell their story.”

Laila Phelia drives to the rim in Syracuse’s overtime win versus Auburn. Phelia scored five points in overtime, ultimately sealing the Orange’s victory. Leopold Gensler | Staff Photographer

In the waning seconds of regulation, Syracuse had a chance to win it. It led 51-50. For the previous 39 minutes, it had gone toe to toe with an Auburn squad that was off to its best start since 2018-19. But the Tigers had the ball, and if their last two possessions were any indication, they were about to take the lead.

Darius guarded Coulibaly at the perimeter. After Darius was screened away, Coulibaly drove down the lane, laying a floater between the outstretched arms of Izoje and Aurora Almón. Just like that, the Orange were 15 seconds from their second loss.

Legette-Jack called a timeout to regroup her squad. When they came back out, they were handed a gift. Before Darius could inbound it, Clara Koulibaly trampled over Burrows. The junior guard went to the line for two shots, having not missed a free throw this season.

She took a deep breath, dribbled the ball once, took another deep breath, shrugged her shoulders and then took the shot. It rattled around the rim before bouncing out. Darius and Phelia flooded in from the 3-point line to give her encouragement. Journey Thompson floated in from the block. On the bench, some players partially covered their faces to avoid the pain.

But Burrows sank the second, keeping Syracuse alive.

“I’ve shot a lot of free throws in my life,” Burrows said. “It was no different than the rest I’ve taken.”

Burrows is supposed to be an essential part of SU’s success this season. She led the Orange with 65 3-pointers last year and was Syracuse’s lone returning starter. Entering Wednesday, though, she’d struggled drastically, shooting at a 12.9% clip (4-for-31) from distance.

It was an encouraging sign that she proved clutch when SU needed her most. Even with 11 total points, she faltered early, much like the rest of Syracuse’s foundation.

Despite having hit just 30 of their first 108 3-point attempts entering Wednesday, the Orange pulled the trigger early and often. Darius started the barrage on SU’s first possession but came up short. Phelia and Burrows also tried two 3s but missed the mark. Syracuse finished 0-for-16 from 3.

Its offense was flustered, a state it had rarely entered in its first seven games. With four guards in its starting lineup, SU used full-court passes to set up its offense. Auburn wouldn’t allow that.

The Tigers deployed a full-court press to open the game. They looked to trap the Orange’s guards in the corners, successfully forcing an errant pass from Burrows four minutes in. Even when Syracuse did find open shots, nothing seemed to fall.

The Orange hit just four shots in the opening 10 minutes, while A’riel Jackson’s three makes guided Auburn’s 17-12 lead after one quarter. But then everything changed.

“We know it’s a game of runs. You’re gonna get tired,” Legette-Jack said. “We were just waiting on the gassing to take place on (Auburn’s) side.”

Syracuse opened the second with a newfound aggression. Izoje did the heavy lifting with six points, two boards and a block. By halftime, SU had flipped its first-quarter deficit into a 28-23 lead.

Though Auburn steadied things out of the break, cutting its deficit to 36-35. Syracuse began to get outpaced, and by the quarter’s end, the teams were back on even standing at 40.

Then, Syracuse did the right things at the right time. Fifteen minutes after knotting things up, the Orange got the last laugh.

“We did a lot of things just about us,” Legette-Jack said. “Maybe it’s time for us to step up, and today, we did.”

Defeating a thriving team like Auburn is a big step forward for Syracuse, which finished 12-18 last season and 14th in the ACC. Even with program-defining wins like Wednesday’s, though, Legette-Jack doesn’t really care what others think. She has just three words going forward.

“We want more.”

Published on December 3, 2025 at 7:37 pm
Contact: jordankimball28@gmail.com | @JordanKimball_