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Millions of people have New Year’s resolutions. As the clock strikes midnight on Jan. 1, they decide to set goals for themselves, hoping to capitalize on the opportunity the new year presents to reinvent themselves.

Syracuse is no exception. While the Orange’s individual New Year’s resolutions are impossible to decipher, it’s fair to infer that SU hoped to ring in 2026 by securing a New Year’s Day victory over Florida State, leaving any memories of its Dec. 28 loss to Duke in 2025.

The Orange wasted no time leaving that version of themselves in the past. On Thursday, Syracuse got out to a 26-14 lead over the Seminoles, and never relinquished it. The deficit got down to as little as two points late, but SU ultimately held on for its second Atlantic Coast Conference victory of the season — and first of 2026.

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s (12-2, 2-1 ACC) 82-72 win over Florida State (5-10, 0-3 ACC).

Bye, bye Burrows?

Early in SU’s 71-51 loss to Duke, Sophie Burrows was briefly forced out of commission after knocking knees with a Blue Devils defender. Burrows ultimately returned later in the game, but she ended the night shooting a paltry 1-of-10 mark from the field.

It’s difficult to tell which of those two factors were the true reason behind Burrows’ benching against the Seminoles. But when head coach Felisha Legette-Jack released her starting lineup on Thursday, Burrows was conspicuously absent for the first time all season — replaced by Journey Thompson at the power forward spot.

Burrows ended up making an entrance about three minutes into the contest, and she promptly knocked down her first 3-pointer attempt to extend the Orange’s lead to 18-8. But she then missed her next four attempts, the third of which was a midrange jumper that was never close to the rim.

The game just felt difficult for the Orange’s Australian marksman early on. Near the end of the first half, Burrows just lost control of her dribble at half court, and she sat powerless as Sole Williams picked her pocket and took it to the rack to cut the Seminoles’ deficit to 41-33.

Overall, Burrows played 34 minutes off the bench. She had a better offensive performance than her showing against Duke, finishing with 12 points, but it wasn’t the kind of outing that will cement her case to return to the starting five.

Dominique dominates

Less than three minutes into Thursday’s matchup, Syracuse held a controlling 10-2 lead over Florida State. That advantage was nearly entirely courtesy of Dominique Darius’ efforts.

On SU’s first offensive possession, Thompson opened play with a missed jumper. Fortunately for the Orange, she was bailed out by Darius, who snagged the offensive rebound and dished the ball to Laila Phelia. The Texas transfer canned a midrange jumper to make it 2-0 Syracuse, giving Darius her first assist of the game.

Then, Darius made her impact on the scoring end. She doubled the advantage by driving to the rim for a layup, and after Williams made two free throws to cut FSU’s deficit to 4-2, she drained a 3-pointer to bring the lead up to five. She ended the sequence holding six of the Orange’s first eight points.

Darius cooled off after that initial flurry, failing to score in the second quarter, but she still finished the game with 19 points. Her impact gave the Orange a wide lead from the get-go, and they just had to go into cruise control to maintain it.

Izoje is everywhere!

Stop if you’ve heard this before: Syracuse wins a game thanks to an utterly dominant performance from Uche Izoje. It took her a little over two minutes to get on the board — scoring with a layup — but she was on fire from that point on.

A couple minutes after her first bucket, she potted another layup to double her tally. Soon after, she hit a midrange shot to make it 24-10 SU. Izoje went a little quiet to open the second quarter, but she snapped out of that funk with a turnaround jumper and a layup in consecutive offensive possessions.

She finished the first half with 12 points on six-of-eight shooting, leading the Orange in points to push them to a 43-33 halftime lead. Izoje also snagged nine boards in that period, dominating the glass with five offensive boards.

Izoje didn’t slow down in the second half, securing a double-double less than a minute into the third quarter and sealing the win with a late layup. She finished the day with 21 points and a career-high 17 boards, a stark difference from her eight-point, four-rebound performance against the Blue Devils.

But for Legette-Jack, her 30 minutes played is probably a more encouraging sign. After SU’s defeat to Duke, she said her team is significantly different depending on how much Izoje is able to play, alluding to her foul-addled 18-minute outing. In the Orange’s second ACC win, she was seemingly vindicated.

Thompson’s tough start

Out with Burrows, in with Thompson. The Arizona State transfer hadn’t started a game all season, but she had settled into her role as a sixth-man in her second year with the Orange.

Entering Thursday, she led all Syracuse bench players with an average of 15.3 minutes per game, scoring 5.8 points per game while making 59.6% of her shots. She ranked first among all SU players with an offensive rating of 129.8 — meaning that the Orange average nearly 130 points per 100 possessions that she is on the court.

With Burrows struggling to adjust to her role as a forward, this made her a natural fit to slide into her role once Legette-Jack decided to place her on the bench. Unfortunately for the Orange, she’s seemingly much more effective when she’s playing with the second unit.

Thompson only played 11 minutes against the Seminoles. She was held scoreless and snagged one rebound — much lower than her averages of 5.8 and 4.3, respectively. She also didn’t appear once in the fourth quarter. In a game where she was ostensibly poised to make her biggest impact yet, Thompson failed to do so.

Published on January 1, 2026 at 8:14 pm
Contact Mauricio: mjpalmar@syr.edu | @mpalmarDO