Syracuse overcomes 30% shooting day, beats Miami 65-60
Laila Phelia scored 21 points for Syracuse Sunday, as the Orange held on late to defeat Miami 65-60 for their eighth ACC win. Courtesy of SU Athletics
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Syracuse women’s basketball isn’t your average top-40 team.
Sure, the Orange have the record, the star players and the numbers to back their NET ranking. But they still don’t have a ranked win. They’ve lost by 20 to every top-20 team they’ve played. And, with a few exceptions, they’ve lacked the sort of jaw-dropping performances common among the nation’s best squads.
But the Orange still find themselves fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference in the final month of the season. Why? Because they just know how to take care of business.
The Orange haven’t needed to slay any giants, because they’ve been so effective at beating everyone else. Syracuse entered Sunday’s matchup with Miami 6-0 against teams with a sub-.500 conference record. At times, the Orange can fall. They can flail. But by all means, they just have a knack for getting the job done.
Sunday’s matchup against Miami epitomized that. With another opportunity to stack a win against a team with a sub-.500 ACC record, Syracuse had one of its ugliest outings of the season. Its best player had one of her worst performances of the year. It nearly coughed up an 18-point lead late.
Nonetheless, the Orange did what they do best — they took care of business.
Although it shot a near season-low 30% from the field, Syracuse (18-4, 8-3 ACC) never trailed, defeating Miami (12-10, 4-7 ACC) 65-60 Sunday afternoon. SU shot 28.3% from the field through three quarters, but settled down in the fourth. Leading scorer Uche Izoje was held to just six points on 3-of-12 shooting and fouled out, but Sophie Burrows and Laila Phelia picked up the slack with 21 points each for the Orange.
Despite its eventual inefficiencies, Syracuse started the game hot. It sprinted out on an early 9-0 run for the second game in a row, punctuated by a smooth and-1 layup from Shy Hawkins. It took the Hurricanes about four minutes to find the bottom of the net.
When it finally found nylon, Miami caught up with a 9-0 run of its own. Syracuse went four straight minutes without a point, missing nine straight field goals before Phelia hit a 3 with a minute and a half left. SU settled down offensively, closing the frame on a 7-2 run to lead 16-11 after one quarter.
Syracuse stayed cold through most of the second. Thankfully for the Orange, so did Miami.
After Hawkins and Phelia scored on SU’s first two possessions of the quarter, it went five minutes without a make, going 0-for-10 in that span. Miami wasn’t much better, failing to score on eight straight field goals.
Eventually, Dominique Darius broke the ice, hitting a stepback triple with just under four minutes to play in the frame. Izoje, who started the game 0-for-6 from the field, then got on the board with a turnaround jumper from the left wing, and Aurora Almon sank a layup.
That flurry helped Syracuse close the first half up by six, but it wasn’t a great showing. SU shot 26.3% from the field in the first half — its second-worst first-half shooting performance this season — while its star players were ice cold. Izoje was 1-of-8 at the half, Darius was 2-for-12 and Phelia was 1-for-6.
In most conference matchups, those numbers would’ve meant Syracuse was in big trouble. But thanks to the Hurricanes — who shot just 33.3% in the first half and turned the ball over 10 times — SU was never really threatened.
Syracuse’s fortune didn’t change much in the third quarter, although Miami started to catch up. The Orange went three minutes without a point to start the frame, allowing the Hurricanes to trim the lead to three.
From there, though, Syracuse’s stars finally settled in. Izoje knocked down two quick jumpers, and Burrows — who was SU’s most consistent scorer Sunday, shooting 7-for-14 and 5-of-11 from 3 — drilled a triple from the left corner to put the Orange up eight at the media timeout.
After three points off free throws by Phelia, Burrows drilled another corner triple to extend Syracuse’s lead to 10. Two more free throws from Phelia helped the Orange close the quarter with a then-game-high 11-point advantage.
Syracuse rode that high into the game’s final 10 minutes. While the Orange missed their first three field goals of the quarter, Burrows buried another triple from the left wing to get the offense going. Then, Phelia followed it up with a driving layup to force a Hurricanes timeout.
From there, the Orange put on the afterburners. Darius and Phelia made back-to-back shots out of the timeout before Burrows rained another deep 3 to give Syracuse a 19-point advantage.
Miami still wouldn’t go away, though, even with SU firing on all cylinders. The Hurricanes chipped away with two 3-pointers of their own to combat Syracuse’s run of six field goals on its first seven shots of the frame.
Eventually, the Orange cooled down and went four minutes without a bucket, making way for an 8-0 run in Miami’s favor. That became a bit more threatening in the game’s final minutes, after the Hurricanes nailed two quick triples and forced a few misses. Nonetheless, Syracuse hunkered down defensively and did enough to close out the game at the free throw line.
It was a good reminder for this SU squad entering the final month of regular-season play: The wins aren’t always going to be pretty. But, when the Orange are in a survive-and-advance situation to make it to March, they’ll take the victories any way they come. Just like they have all season.
