Syracuse secures 10th win with dominant 72-54 victory vs. Binghamton
Syracuse secured its 10th win of the season with a 72-54 victory over Binghamton. Dominique Darius led SU with 17 points. Leopold Gensler | Contributing Photographer
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The result might as well have been set in stone before Binghamton even walked into the JMA Wireless Dome. Prior to Syracuse’s Tuesday matchup against the Bearcats, it’d spent the entirety of its season turning mid-major New York programs into its prey.
First was a season-opening, 24-point victory against Stony Brook. Then came a 19-point win over UAlbany. Dominant performances followed against Canisius, Wagner and Colgate, with the Orange winning the latter two contests by margins of over 45 points. Syracuse’s in-state rivals had never stood a chance against it all season.
Even last season’s SU squad — which suffered a shocking upset loss at the hands of UAlbany in its fifth game of the year — had no trouble dispatching the Bearcats with a 27-point win. No matter what Binghamton head coach Mary Grimes did on the opposing sideline, the outcome was a fait accompli.
For the sixth time this season, a mid-major in-state foe made the trek to the JMA Wireless Dome. And for the sixth time this season, Syracuse sent them packing with a double-digit loss. The Orange (10-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) suffocated Binghamton (6-4, America East) in their 72-54 victory, holding the Bearcats to 34.5% from the field. Dominique Darius led the way with 17 points for SU, while Uche Izoje secured her third double-double of the season.
“We know teams are gonna be excited to play (us), especially a New York team,” Darius said. “Understanding that they’re gonna play with a lot of energy and passion, (it was important) for us to just stay poised.”
Despite what the result would indicate, a Syracuse win wasn’t such a foregone conclusion initially. Six minutes in, Yanniah Boyd’s pull up jumper made it 6-4 Binghamton. Unlike SU’s contest against the Raiders, where it rode a 24-5 first quarter to a dominant victory, the Orange simply couldn’t pull away.
It took the Bearcats less than five minutes to outdo the entirety of Colgate’s first quarter scoring production. SU missed its first three 3-pointers and made just three of its first 10 shots.
Anything the Orange did, Binghamton matched. After Izoje made two consecutive layups to put Syracuse up 10-7, Boyd and Kendall Bennett both scored to reclaim an 11-10 lead. It was a far cry from the dominance the Orange had grown accustomed to through its first 10 games.
When Syracuse needs a leader to step up, Darius has often been one of the first faces it looks to. At halftime of its dominant 96-72 win over Canisius, she was the one who demanded more defensive effort from her teammates. Against Utah, her 16-point double-double helped turn a halftime deficit into a 61-49 victory.
It was little surprise when she spearheaded SU’s offensive resurgence Tuesday.
After receiving a pass from Madeline Potts, Darius broke SU’s dry spell with a 3-pointer, giving it a 15-11 lead. Then, she tacked on another three points to its advantage with a corner triple. Two mid-range jumpers later, and Darius was already up to 12 points less than 14 minutes in, pushing SU’s advantage to 24-13.
“I’m amazed that (Darius’) other coaches didn’t understand what they had on their team,” SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “She’s just going to continue to get better, and we’re gonna keep getting better because Dominique Darius is on our team.”
The Orange continued to clamp down on the Bearcats’ offense, outscoring Binghamton 19-5 through the first five minutes of the second quarter. Izoje repeatedly stuffed the Bearcats in the paint — recording two blocks in the quarter — while Laila Phelia compensated for her 1-for-6 start with two steals in the frame.
But with four minutes until the half, Syracuse relaxed its intensity on both ends of the ball. Its lead — once as high as 17 points — shrunk to 33-27 after Binghamton’s 12-0 run. Thanks to Sophie Burrows’ ensuing fastbreak layup, the Orange salvaged a 39-28 halftime lead.
And after a brief interlude, Burrows sprang right back into action. Syracuse’s suffocating press made life difficult for the Bearcats from the opening tip, forcing Kaia Goode into an awry pass. Burrows dove in front of it, grabbed her second steal of the game, and took Izoje’s subsequent feed to the rim to open the scoring for SU in the second half.
“My goal this year is to be more than just a shooter,” Burrows said. “So, when the shots aren’t dropping, I can always get rebounds, I can help the team defensively.”
The iteration of Binghamton that had gone toe-to-toe with the Orange through the game’s opening frame disappeared from there.
Less than four minutes into the third quarter, Angelica Velez — who entered the game shooting 16.7% from 3 — canned a triple to extend Syracuse’s lead to 20 points. If there was any hope for the Bearcats to keep the game competitive, Velez had effectively killed it.
After the 1:20 mark of the second quarter, the contest never got within single digits again. Syracuse entered the fourth quarter with a 57-35 lead, allowing it to empty its bench across the final frame with its fifth consecutive victory all but sealed.
Last season, the Orange had to wait until Feb. 9 to claim their 10th victory — a 62-50 triumph over Wake Forest. It wasn’t much to celebrate; the season was practically over, with SU wielding 13 losses and a paltry 4-8 ACC record at that point.
Things can change a lot in a year. Syracuse — seven weeks before that date — walked out of the JMA Wireless Dome with its 10th victory in stow. And with zero ACC losses, this season couldn’t be further from over for Legette-Jack’s squad.
“It’s one thing to know there needs to be change, and it’s another to actually change things,” Burrows said. “I think we’ve all just taken it up a notch.”
