Syracuse struggles down the stretch in 62-50 loss to No. 13 Duke
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Alaina Rice drove baseline, past Duke’s Kennedy Brown, and found herself near the short corner on the left side of the court. Syracuse was down seven with 2:39 to go and needed a quick bucket.
Rice stopped and popped, sending a rainbow of a shot over the outstretched arms of the defense to hit from close range as she faded away. The bucket gave her 13 on the night to lead all SU scorers and brought the Orange within five.
But then, two quick Dyaisha Fair turnovers led to a pair of baskets for Duke’s Celeste Taylor as the Blue Devil lead doubled in just half a minute.
Rice hoisted from three with 49 seconds remaining but couldn’t convert. Shayeann Day-Wilson hit a pair of free throws on the other end to put the game to bed.
Like they had done against then-No 6. ranked NC State and again with No. 7 Notre Dame, Syracuse (13-7, 4-5 Atlantic Coast) held its own against No. 13 Duke (17-2, 7-1 ACC) behind solid defense and quick transition buckets. Yet, a 10-minute scoreless drought to end the second quarter and to start the third, in addition to a near-five-minute scoreless drought in the final quarter of play, saw the Orange fall to yet another ranked opponent for their third straight ACC loss.
Syracuse came into Cameron Indoor Stadium with one of their best starts of the 2022-23 campaign, jumping out to a 7-0 lead. On the game’s first possession, Teisha Hyman launched and connected on a confident-looking step-back 3 and Dariauna Lewis hit a reverse layup a few seconds later.
On Duke’s next offensive possession, Day-Wilson hit a short-range jumper to put the Blue Devils on the board. However, by the mid-point of the first quarter, SU also registered two steals as Fair and Georgia Woolley were able to score on both of those fast-break opportunities.
Fair performed several between-the-legs crossovers before driving toward the middle with 1:48 remaining in the opening period. Arriving a few steps inside the free-throw line she pulled up suddenly and cashed in on a double-clutch shot — something that she had only started utilizing the game before in SU’s loss on the road to Georgia Tech.
Known by opposing defenses as a multi-faceted offensive player throughout her career, Fair’s continuous implementation of new and exciting moves to add to her arsenal could very well spark an uptick in the 19.4 points per game she averages — good enough for third in the ACC.
After 10 minutes, Duke trailed Syracuse by five with the Orange up 15-10. The story of the first quarter was the six turnovers that the Blue Devils committed — translating conveniently into six transition points for SU.
The latter end of the second quarter quickly turned into a furious back-and-forth between the two teams. Off of a Fair turnover, Taylor went coast-to-coast, switching hands in mid-air from left to right as she made a running layup.
Then, two possessions later, Day-Wilson rejected a screen and crossed over to her left, losing Woolley in the process. Finding herself with enough space to shoot, Day-Wilson sprayed from deep for her second three-pointer of the contest, to tie the game up at 22 apiece. With under five minutes in the half, she had already reached double-figures, producing 10 points.
A go-ahead 3-pointer from the top of the key, courtesy of Taylor, gave Duke its first lead of the game, 25-24 with 4:01 to go. The score would stay that way for some time as SU would remain scoreless for a couple of minutes plus some change. Off of a disrupted inbounds play, Lewis had the chance to take back the lead from the short corner but airballed on her attempt.
Day-Wilson led the Blue Devils with an extremely efficient 16 points, shooting 5-8 from the field and registering a perfect percentage from range. Taylor added 15 points along with 6 rebounds and Elizabeth Balogun finished with 10 points to round up all double-digit scorers for Duke.
In its last two losses, Syracuse suffered two fourth-quarter collapses. Against the Blue Devils, it took just 20 minutes for the Orange to fall victim to an opposition scoring run as Duke went on a 14-2 spurt to build a 29-24 lead to end the first half.
Things didn’t get better for SU at the beginning of the second half, either. Despite forcing Duke into 11 total turnovers by about four minutes into the third quarter, the Orange had committed 13 of their own. After a strong defensive stand that saw Hyman come away with the ball, Fair missed a wide-open layup with 6:57 left in the third.
Moments later, another easy opportunity was squandered. Hyman came off of a screen and found an opening. With one defender to beat, she euro-stepped past and attempted to bank in a layup that landed wide of the target, clanking off of the back iron.
Midway through the third period, Duke had built on Syracuse’s misses, constructing its largest lead of the game. A Taya Corosdale jumper forced SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack to call timeout as the Blue Devil lead ballooned to 39-26 with 5:45 left in the penultimate quarter of play.
Undeterred, and led by a mirage of mid-range pull-ups from Fair, Syracuse battled back, slowly cutting away at the 13-point Duke lead. With just under three minutes to play in the quarter, two huge Kyra Wood offensive rebounds, both coming from misses by Fair, resulted in a trip to the charity stripe for Hyman. She would knock down both free throws to bring the Orange within six.
To start the fourth quarter, Fair hit two free throws before Rice stole the ball away from Day-Wilson and dished it to Wood for an easy lay-in. But after its quick start, Syracuse would go scoreless for almost five minutes while, in similar fashion to how the first half ended, Duke extended its lead, thriving off of SU’s stagnant offense, to seven. At one point, early on during the final 10 minutes, the Orange were trailing by just four.
Reagan Richardson saw an opening to her left and drove downhill past Rice. Nearing the baseline, and watching closely as Saniaa Wilson came over to provide help, she passed the ball off to Balogun for an uncontested lay-in. At the last second, Woolley’s outstretched arm grazed the top of Balogun’s head and the officials blew for an and-one opportunity to put Duke up nine with 3:47 to go.
Rice would hit two more free throws before time expired to tally a team-high 15 on the afternoon. Fair enjoyed brief stints of offensive dominance, but went cold in the fourth quarter, still finishing with 12 points for her 20th consecutive game in double-figures.
