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DULUTH, Ga. — Felisha Legette-Jack turned to her left, looked at Uche Izoje directly — though Izoje wouldn’t meet her gaze — and asked her the most important question of the press conference after Syracuse’s win over Cal Thursday.

“Can you score tomorrow in the first quarter?”

Izoje, her eyes still locked on the microphone in front of her, reflexively answered her coach’s call to action by saying, “Yes, Coach.” Everyone in attendance broke out into laughter.

It was a reasonable question. Right then, the team was hers. With her 23-point, 10-rebound performance, Izoje was just minutes removed from sending the Orange to the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament Quarterfinals. Her reward was a matchup with No. 2 seed Louisville, a team that bullied Syracuse early and held it to zero first-quarter field goals back in February.

Izoje had just finished answering a question about what Syracuse could do differently this time around, and her answer essentially boiled down to punching the Cardinals first. But lip service is one thing. It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t put it into action.

You can’t say Izoje didn’t hold up her end of the bargain. On a day where nearly everything went wrong for Syracuse, her 22-point, nine-rebound performance was the only bright spot to be said for SU. But the rest of the team simply couldn’t match her. Just like its last matchup, No. 7 seed Syracuse (23-8, 12-6 ACC) allowed No. 2 seed Louisville (26-6, 15-3 ACC) to punch first, and it never recovered in its 87-61 ACC Tournament Quarterfinal defeat.

It felt like deja vu. In the first quarter of Friday’s contest, SU was outscored 25-12, which wasn’t as wide as the 28-6 margin SU was staring at through 10 minutes of their first matchup. But in both cases, the Orange were forced to repent for their sins in the contest’s opening frame — and they were never able to do so.

“In both of these (matchups), we came out shooting the ball well,” Louisville head coach Jeff Walz said postgame. “I think we made our first four shots of the game today.”

Not to burst Walz’s bubble, but that’s not exactly an accurate assessment. The Cardinals actually missed their first two shots of the game Friday and didn’t get on the board until Tajianna Roberts laced a triple about three minutes into the first quarter.

But to Walz’s credit, once Roberts did break the ice with that first 3-pointer, it was open season for Louisville. The Cardinals started the game on an 8-0 run. Louisville was relentless with its ball pressure — especially with Syracuse missing Dominique Darius as its primary ball-handler — and it capitalized on her absence to force the Orange into seven tough shots to open the game, all of which they missed.

“It’s a thing we’ve been talking about all year,” Roberts said postgame, referring to the Cardinals’ ball pressure. “The coaches were preaching that: Pressure the ball, get in the passing lanes and anticipate the next pass. Because we know our defense will fuel our offense.”

Louisville’s Imari Berry lies flat on the Gas South Arena hardwood after inducing a foul. The Cardinals got out to a hot start Friday, leaving Syracuse in the dust early. Courtesy of the Atlantic Coast Conference

Impressive. Louisville must have one smart coaching staff, because that defensive game plan Walz engineered worked perfectly early on.

But Legette-Jack already knew that the Cardinals had a savant manning the opposite bench. You don’t stick around for nearly two decades — an eternity in coaching years — at the same school, make it to four Final Fours and win 512 games with a program by accident.

“Nineteen years in the same spot. Are you kidding me? That is a lifetime in this business,” Legette-Jack said. “He’s really great at what he does, and they’ve got a great system.”

Laila Phelia — who finished 3-of-14 with six points — could feel that system causing her team to struggle with the basics. The Orange weren’t passing effectively, weren’t cutting well, turned the ball over, and just weren’t moving the ball the way they did with Darius at the point.

In all fairness, the Cardinals’ press was suffocating. It made it difficult for whoever was running the point — whether it was Olivia Schmitt or Camdyn Nelson — to get the ball out to their outlets. Phelia saw that pressure speed Syracuse up, and it prevented SU from finding any offensive rhythm in that first quarter.

“We just have to handle the ball,” Phelia said postgame. “Because Dom is not out there, everyone needs to be able to partake in that.”

The first blow wasn’t a superman punch — that would more adequately describe the last opening frame that Louisville played against the Orange — but Friday’s first quarter was damn near close to it. After the first 10 minutes, Legette-Jack gathered her team in a huddle. She had a message for them. She wrote it on her whiteboard.

“You are enough.”

For a time, it seemed that message was enough to bring Syracuse back into the game. Sophie Burrows said it reminded the Orange that they belonged here, that they deserved to be on the court against Louisville. And in a second frame where SU outscored the Cardinals 21-20, that certainly looked to be the case.

“She had that full faith in us,” Burrows said postgame. “And I think that really helped us bring that lead back a little bit.”

Whatever flicker of intensity the Orange found in that moment, they simply couldn’t make it last. Louisville’s lead narrowed to as little as 10 in the third quarter, but the wheels fell off entirely in the fourth, where SU was outscored 25-14. It had no fight left to give.

“They punched us first the last time,” Phelia said. “Even this time, I feel like (the issue was) being able to maintain good energy throughout the game.”

The postgame scene was diametrically opposed to Thursday’s win over Cal. Shy Hawkins laid on the floor, her back against the bench, headphones on as she scrolled through her phone. The others might not have been laid down — perhaps leaning against lockers instead — but the rest of the Orange looked just as defeated as they stared at their devices. You could’ve walked into SU’s locker room, filled with somber silence, and asked yourself, “Who died?”

No one, really — well, pardon. That would be a lie. The real answer to that question would be Syracuse’s ACC Tournament run.

The Orange were still in mourning. If you would, please excuse their dour disposition.

Published on March 6, 2026 at 6:54 pm
Contact Mauricio: mjpalmar@syr.edu | @mpalmarDO