No. 25 Syracuse survives poor shooting night to defeat Boston College 71-64
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Syracuse was sitting comfortably, but a 16-point fourth quarter lead was soon cut down to seven after Boston College scored nine-straight points. The Orange missed point-blank looks on the offensive end while BC pulled in loose balls and got easy buckets. The offensive rhythm they started in the second half had disappeared.
With each passing possession, SU passed up open shots and turned the ball over in situations where it shouldn’t have. Though, in the second half, Syracuse extended its lead enough afford some mistakes.
After North Carolina gave Syracuse a wake-up call Thursday, the Orange looked to bounce back from their worst loss of the season. SU seemed to be cruising as it led by 20 points in the third quarter, but BC wouldn’t go away and cut the lead to five. Despite a late surge from Boston College (9-7, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), No. 25 Syracuse (12-2, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) escaped with a 71-64 victory. The Orange shot 37.1% from the floor and turned the ball over 25 times, yet they were led by a career-high 17 points from freshman Sophie Burrows.
“We’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day,” Syracuse head coach Felisha Legette-Jack postgame said.
Out of the gate, SU missed its first eight shots from the field and turned the ball over three times. Syracuse was out of sorts and disconnected on the offensive end, much like it was in Chapel Hill.
Alaina Rice dribbled baseline but didn’t have an angle, attempting a reverse layup which failed. Then, Rice then turned the ball over looking for Alyssa Latham inside. With Syracuse down 4-0 early, Kyra Wood attempted to post up down low while Dyaisha Fair controlled the ball on the wing. Without Wood even looking, Fair needlessly threw the ball inside for another giveaway.
On the other end, Teya Sidberry scored Boston College’s first six points and drew an offensive foul on Saniaa Wilson. Syracuse trailed 8-4 early on as Fair once again controlled the ball on the wing. A lazy pass to Latham was poked away as BC went the other way for another easy bucket.
Boston College came in with one of the most aggressive defenses in the country, averaging 12.9 steals per game — second in the ACC and fifth in the nation, according to Her Hoop Stats.
Despite the ugly start on offense, Syracuse started to settle in on defense. A drive to the hoop by Kennedi Perkins and a subsequent steal by Georgia Woolley tied the game at 10-10. After Syracuse opened up the game by going four minutes without a basket, BC went the final three without a point. Despite shooting just 4-for-15, Fair split a pair of free throws to put the Orange up 11-10 at the end of the first.
“Defensively, once we got some stops and some steals, that turned over to offense,” said Perkins, who finished with a season-high nine points. “It was really good for us to pick it up and stop them so we could get into our rhythm scoring.”
But in the second quarter, Syracuse’s turnover problems persisted, giving BC easy looks in transition. Woolley tried to dribble through traffic and lost the ball and Sidberry capitalized with a layup on the other end. On the next possession, Latham then threw it to Woolley but another turnover led to an easy bucket, putting BC up 16-13.
SU continued to scratch and claw on the offensive end. Woolley missed inside and then got rejected on a 3 in the same possession, but Latham corralled the board before Fair drilled a 3-pointer in the corner as SU led 20-16. Fair connected on her second 3 to put Syracuse up six. And halfway through the second, Burrows hit another 3 to give the Orange a seven-point advantage.
The first half wasn’t pretty for either SU or BC. Each combined for 27 turnovers (SU 14, BC 13) and the Orange shot just 35.5%. But three key 3-pointers in the second quarter helped SU, along with a suffocating defense, to a 32-22 halftime lead.
After Syracuse attempted a season-high 30 3-pointers against North Carolina, Legette-Jack said, “That’s not us.” Despite her calls for fewer shots from deep, her team attempted 15 in the first half — missing all 7 they attempted in the first quarter.
Legette-Jack explained that at halftime she told certain players that if they took a 3, they’d be pulled out. The second-year head coach said she took out Perkins because of an ill-advised attempt from beyond the arc in the third quarter.
“Twenty-five 3s is way too many for a team that only made six,” Legette-Jack said. “We have to decipher who those shoes are going to be because everyone’s throwing them in the air and everyone’s gonna have the birthright to do that and we’re going to get better in that regard.”
The Orange responded to their coach’s message, scoring the first nine points of the third quarter. Syracuse was more composed and got better looks in the paint instead of firing from deep.
Rice corralled an offensive board and finished inside to get SU going, which Burrows followed up by canning a 3 from the top of the key. Rice and Fair scored on drives to put Syracuse up 41-22. Burrows drained another 3-pointer on a feed from Fair to balloon Syracuse’s lead to 20. Outside of Burrows’ 3-for-6 effort from deep, SU shot just 6-for-25.
But Boston College didn’t go away, scoring six straight. SU’s poor shot selection and turnovers let BC hang around. Andrea Daley and Dontavia Waggoner scored on back-to-back possessions, yet Syracuse still led by 14 heading into the fourth.
Waggoner knocked down Boston College’s first 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter after missing its first eight attempts. Woolley was then rejected inside and Todd finished on the other end to cut Syracuse’s lead to single digits for the first time since the opening half.
Perkins used a shot fake to end a four-minute scoring drought to put the Orange up 58-49 with 3:30 to play. Like Perkins, Burrows used BC’s aggressive defense against itself, pump-faking and draining a mid-range shot to calm some nerves.
Daley knocked down a couple of late 3s to get BC within five with under a minute left, yet it was too little too late as Fair iced the game with a pair of free throws.
Throughout the second half, Legette-Jack implored her team to get the ball into the paint more and get easier looks from 2. It was a sluggish game — as Syracuse and Boston College combined for 39% shooting and 46 turnovers — and the head coach wished her team hadn’t resorted to taking 3-pointers as much as they did.
“You start making a couple of shots close to all of a sudden the rim gets bigger,” Legette-Jack said. “We didn’t take enough 2s to get that rim to expand itself.”
