Kennedi Perkins fuels Syracuse’s come-from-behind win over Arizona in 1st round of NCAA Tournament

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STORRS, Conn. — Absolutely nothing is given in Felisha Legette-Jack’s system. Her players have to earn their stripes at every turn. Those who have work to do remain seated. Those who answer the call rarely wind up leaving the floor.

The head coach’s week-by-week, day-by-day outlook on her roster was put to the test prior to Syracuse’s first-round NCAA Tournament bout versus Arizona. The aftermath of a colossal disappointment in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament meant Legette-Jack had some soul-searching to do. Everyone was back at square one. All options to provide a solution laid on the table.

Once SU returned from Greensboro, North Carolina, Legette-Jack’s squad “went at it,” she said. Sprints up and down the court as punishment for failure was a way for Legette-Jack to re-instill commitment into her players after they hit rock bottom. But one individual stood out through her trials — sophomore backup guard Kennedi Perkins.

Though her efforts during a grueling stretch of practices came at a revolting cost.

“She got real comfortable with that trash can,” Legette-Jack said of Perkins. “She says give me one more second, and she’d get back out there and play.”

Most of Legette-Jack’s decisions stem from her assistant coaches. Sue Ludwig, Khyreed Carter, Kristen Sharkey, Steven Gilbert and Amber Moore are the confidants behind Legette-Jack’s orchestration. They all met in the “war room” — as Legette-Jack referred to it — to doctor their plan for March. Perkins was brought up. They determined she had earned more runs. From there, it was simply a matter of when, not if, the first run would take place.

Perkins was subbed in at the 2:49 mark of the second quarter as SU trailed by eight. She never left the floor after that.

In No. 6 seed Syracuse’s (24-7, 13-5 ACC) come-from-behind 74-69 first-round victory over No. 11 seed Arizona (18-16, 8-10 Pac-12), Perkins’ on-court presence catalyzed the monumental triumph. Her +13 plus/minus dwarfed the field. Her eight-point effort on a perfect 4-for-4 clip provided some much-needed buckets down the stretch. Her impact as a one-two punch with Dyaisha Fair sealed the program’s first March Madness win under Legette-Jack.

“There was no question if it was (Perkins) or not,” Legette-Jack said. “She earned those minutes. Our coaches said it, we all believed it and she got out there and proved us all right.”

The Orange immediately embarked on a 4-0 run once Perkins touched the hardwood. It was uncanny. She fed Kyra Wood underneath the rim for a lay-in, then grabbed a loose ball on the other end to spearhead a fast break chance, which ended in an Alyssa Latham put-back.

Perkins’ presence filtered down to the rest of the lineup. She was stationed at point guard, while Fair rotated off the ball as a two-guard and Woolley at the three. A Wood-Latham frontcourt pairing was the finishing touch on a perfectly-spaced group. Gaudy results were imminent once the lineup began the second half.

Fair moving around the perimeter with Perkins taking the ball upcourt freed her up for a wide open catch-and-shoot 3 early in the third. Then, Perkins hit Georgia Woolley at the right wing for another uncovered 3-pointer to bring Syracuse within one. But down the stretch, Perkins took matters into her own hands.

After Fair drained a step-back 3 at the 5:40 mark to make the score 47-45 in favor of Arizona, defensive attention grew even more on the sharpshooter. Perkins saw opportunity.

“Since Dyaisha’s a three-level scorer and I’m more aggressive on the attack, I feel like once they go out to her or when she’s driving and she kicks it to me, they’re not ready for me to do a pull-up or attack them,” Perkins said. “That’s how we play off each other, and it’s been working.”

A few plays later, Perkins took in a pass from Fair on the right baseline. Following a few hesitation dribbles, she barreled to the rim with her left hand — blowing by Arizona guard Esmery Martinez in the process — and finished a teardrop for her first points of the day.

Late in the third, with SU down by two, Perkins and Fair converged on Helena Pueyo and Fair nabbed the steal. Perkins scooped the ball up and instantly floated a long leading pass for a sprinting Fair, who netted the ensuing fast break layup to tie the contest at 51-51.

It wasn’t until the fourth quarter when Perkins truly proved her value. As the finale commenced, Fair was ailing in the tunnel due to a right leg injury she suffered on the final play of the third quarter. Still, Perkins didn’t need her backcourt mate to succeed, driving and drilling a pull-up jumper in the paint to keep Syracuse alive through Fair’s absence.

Now, fast forward to the 3:32 mark of the fourth quarter. The Orange were down by five at that point despite Fair’s earlier return. They needed a spark, and who better to come through than Perkins? Fair sent her a feed at the top of the key, where Perkins penetrated the lane, crossed to her right and drew enough space away from Jada Williams to drain an easy mid-range look.

That bucket was the last bit of insurance SU needed before Fair unleashed for a 9-0 run in the game’s closing moments to stamp Syracuse’s ticket to the round of 32. During Fair’s hot streak, she mostly drew one-on-one coverage — a testament to the threat Perkins posed.

For Perkins, it was the most minutes she’d played in a single appearance since Jan. 18, where she saw 22 minutes in an unlikely comeback over then-No. 15 Florida State. She hadn’t seen the floor much since then. Ten of her next 12 games only yielded single-digit minutes. But Perkins remained composed, and ready, throughout the spell. Once Legette-Jack inserted her back in the mix, the results spoke for themselves.

“You don’t focus on the past when you’re right here,” Perkins said. “I wasn’t focused on my minutes before. I was focused on what I had to do in today’s game to help my team.”

It was a subtle callback to her teenage days in Illinois. To close her tenure at Bolingbrook High School, Perkins scored 18 points against Homewood-Flossmoor (Illinois) to win the sectional championship. That day, Perkins “sealed the victory,” she said. And a couple of years later, she helped seal another one.

This one just happened to be her biggest victory yet.

“I saw we were down, I knew we needed some points,” Perkins said. “I didn’t want to go home, and I knew my teammates didn’t want to go home.

“So I did what I needed to do.”