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STORRS, Conn. — It’s difficult to wait around for two weeks and have your emotions distilled into 40 minutes of basketball, especially when 10 of your players had never played on the stage you’re about to take. That was the situation Syracuse found itself in Saturday.

So, leading up to the Orange’s matchup with Iowa State, Laila Phelia — who reached the NCAA Tournament three times with Michigan and Texas — condensed those feelings into a simple message.

“Anything is possible,” Phelia told her teammates. “This is March Madness. This is where certain teams fall, certain teams ride. The biggest thing for us is to stay true to who we are.”

Who is that, you may ask? It’s a team that’s inconsistently shown glimpses of being one of the most dangerous squads in the Atlantic Coast Conference. It’s, at times, lacked the depth to earn big wins, but has also stunned the nation with hidden gems. Yet March is a new season, and it takes a bit more intensity. At least to reinforce Phelia’s sentiment that anything is truly possible.

“Keyword: Madness,” Phelia shouted. “We’re out there to make people mad.”

It’s unclear whether Syracuse made people upset Saturday, but it definitely made a statement. The No. 9 seed Orange (24-8, 12-6 Atlantic Coast) topped No. 8 seed Iowa State (22-10, 10-8 Big 12) 72-63 in the NCAA Tournament First Round Saturday. It surely wasn’t easy. SU’s biggest point of emphasis on defense, Audi Crooks, still managed to drop 37 points. But Syracuse found a way to get it done.

Just as it had all season.

“There can be a bit of pressure, a bit of nerves, which is normal, but at the end of the day, it’s just another basketball game,” Sophie Burrows said postgame. “Regardless of what everyone else thinks we’re gonna do in this tournament, we have that confidence in each other, and that’s all that matters.”

As Saturday’s game waned on, that confidence was SU’s last resort. It was all it had left. Gampel Pavilion, filled with 10,244 people, was rocking. And it felt like it was fully in support of the Cyclones, who had cut the Orange’s 17-point lead into five with 1:21 to go in regulation.

At the moment, the last 39 minutes didn’t matter. Crooks had just scored her 37th point, and Uche Izoje, the only person who could seemingly quell her, was sitting with four fouls. Phelia knew exactly what had to happen.

She looked at Olivia Schmitt, who had scored a career-high 15 points on five second-quarter 3-pointers, and demanded the Orange not give up.

“We gotta come back together,” Phelia told Schmitt. “Keep talking to me, too, cause we need to stay together. We can’t give this lead up.”

The final minute and change was anything but comfortable, despite Phelia’s message. Izoje started the stretch with a missed mid-range jumper, and ISU’s Addy Brown snared the rebound. The Cyclones pushed the pace to the other side, with Mackenzie Hare clanking a 3 just seven seconds later.

Don’t get too excited. Jada Williams stormed in to give ISU an extra possession, and although she was seconds from making Syracuse sweat that much more, her put-back layup lipped out of the rim and into the hands of Phelia, who found Schmitt to put the win away.

“There’s not a lot of expectation for Syracuse lately,” SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said postgame. “When there’s no expectation, it’s great. We can just work in the dark. What our work is supposed to be, it’s gonna be.”

The thing about March is there is no dark, and although it may have helped if the Orange were hidden, a game in Gampel is like being thrown into fire. Burrows, like Phelia, was one of SU’s only other players who could encapsulate what the NCAA Tournament really means. She was with the Orange when they reached the second round of the 2024 tournament in Storrs, and similarly told her teammates to stay level.

Though in that nail-biting fourth quarter, she was forced to embrace her own message. Burrows said she’d never air balled so many 3s in a game. The chants from ISU’s band and the nonstop banter from Syracuse’s bench were getting to her head.

Syracuse’s 17-point lead shrank to five in the fourth quarter, but SU prevailed and advanced to face No. 1 seed UConn Monday. Tara Deluca | Asst. Photo Editor

Four minutes and 15 seconds remained, with SU barely clinging onto a six-point lead. Then, Journey Thompson turned to Burrows.

“You always tell me to (shoot),” Thompson told Burrows. “Don’t be a hypocrite.”

Despite the misses, the devastation and the pressure that comes with airballs on the sport’s biggest stage, Burrows knew Thompson was right. She knew she had to pull the trigger, and SU should be glad she did.

First, Burrows was left open beyond the left wing. Although Brown closed out, her reach didn’t come close to Burrows’ rise. She swished the 3 to restore SU’s nine-point lead and force a timeout from Iowa State’s Bill Fennelly, who gazed in disbelief toward Syracuse’s bench.

One minute and 15 seconds later, Burrows again found the ball in her hands from beyond the arc. Just inches in front of Syracuse’s bench, the junior guard received a pass from Thompson before her quick-release 3 found the center of the net.

“Really having that confidence from my teammates really helped me get over that edge,” Burrows said.

That confidence, which both Phelia and Burrows pointed to in postgame media, affected everyone involved. With Dominique Darius sidelined with a left-hand injury, everyone had to step up, and questions surrounding depth had to serve as fuel.

That’s precisely how Schmitt knocked down five 3s in the second quarter, flipping an SU three-point deficit into a 12-point lead. That’s also how Oyindamola Akinbolawa, despite playing just 5.3 minutes per game prior to Saturday, held her own when Izoje needed a rest.

“We don’t need to be better than anybody for three or four games,” Legette-Jack said. “We just need to be better than somebody for 40 minutes.”

On Saturday, the Orange can confidently say they were. It was a long-awaited statement and one that sets SU up for a battle with UConn, the nation’s best team, on Monday. But for now, Syracuse should continue to instill confidence in each other.

It’s what’s been working all year for them, and after Saturday, it’s what could ultimately keep the Orange’s season alive. If they carry that belief into Monday, it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side. They’ll have a chance against anyone.

“It’s our family versus their team,” Legette-Jack said. “Our goal is to continue to tell our story, one possession, one day at a time.”

Published on March 21, 2026 at 7:45 pm
Contact: jordankimball28@gmail.com | @JordanKimball_