Guard disparity defines No. 20 Syracuse’s ACC quarterfinals loss to FSU
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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Brooke Wyckoff maintained an assertive grin for the entire postgame press conference. It was almost as if Florida State’s head coach had seen the future. There was no concern. Only exuberant confidence. Wyckoff passed that poise down to her players before FSU’s demolition of Syracuse. But no one harnessed it like her guards did.
Ta’Niya Latson provided her convictions a day before tipoff. That much we knew. O’Mariah Gordon got an extra push, though. She said Wyckoff thought her pull-up jumper was so good pregame that it was damn near a layup. Her boss’s words were all she needed to subdue Dyaisha Fair — the runner-up for Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year.
“I just kind of took that and ran with it,” Gordon said. “And it gave me confidence.”
Gordon exploded for 14 first-quarter points and finished with a career-high 24. She was the perfect pairing to Latson, who dropped 20 of her game-best 25 in the second half. Fair and her backcourt mate Georgia Woolley couldn’t exact the same potency. They combined for 25 after three quarters and by that time, a 67-45 deficit signified the ensuing result. Throughout its 78-65 loss to Florida State (23-9, 12-6 ACC), No. 20 Syracuse (23-7, 13-5 ACC) was a step behind in the guard battle, which led to a premature exit in the ACC Tournament.
“We had a game plan, a very specific one,” Wyckoff said. “And each and every one of these players focused on it and executed it so well and did all the things that we needed to do.”
The strategy wasn’t novel. Wyckoff wanted to keep Fair away from the 3-point line and force her inside. She mentioned how scary it can be when Fair beats you off the dribble, complementing the point guard’s ability to both drive and shoot. Still, Wyckoff was more than content taking her chances with Fair inside the arc.
“If you get beat, that’s OK,” Wyckoff said of her plan to stop Fair. “We’ll bring help (defense) and make (Fair) take a contested 2-pointer. That was the goal.”
By the final buzzer, Fair had just five 3-point attempts. It tied the fewest amount of 3s she’s taken in a single game this season. Only against Alabama on Nov. 30, 2023, did Fair take as little as five. But that night, she made four of them. And Friday, she made just two.
FSU’s Sara Bejedi immediately glided toward Fair on SU’s first possession. She spread her arms wide, locking her eyes on Fair and not letting her leave her sight. Whenever Bejedi touched the floor, she continued to mark Fair, forcing her into a litany of forced mid-range shots and contested layups while clamping her along the perimeter.
Fair found some gaps in the Seminoles’ defense near the end of the first quarter, moving off the ball to drain a pair of 3-pointers. She also hit Woolley on the right baseline for a crucial 3-point play that cut the Orange’s early deficit.
Yet, after the two combined for 14 first-quarter points, they totaled just five in the second. Bejedi closed Fair off from any pockets of open space and prevented her from feeding Woolley, who rotated off the ball. Fair and Woolley went 6-for-17 from the field during the first half and though they mustered three 3-pointers, they didn’t hit a single long-range attempt in the final 20 minutes.
Without a steady Fair and a reliable secondary option in Woolley, Syracuse’s offense grew completely stagnant. SU generated its second-lowest first half scoring output of the season at just 27 points.
“The unfortunate part is that we let our opponent coaches believe that if you stop one of our players, then you stop Syracuse,” SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “That’s what we’re going to go work on.”
Meanwhile, Gordon was lighting it up. She unloaded for 14 points through the opening 10 minutes, nearly equaling Syracuse’s first-quarter total (18). Gordon was a nightmare in transition, barreling downhill for a pull-up jumper for the game’s first bucket and repeating the same play a couple of minutes later following a Fair missed step-back 2.
At the end of the first, Gordon weaved around Fair and Woolley to penetrate the paint as the shot clock neared zero. She lifted up a left-handed floater that bounced around the rim a few times but trickled into the net while beating the buzzer.
“Our coaches told us to attack, just attack,” Gordon said. “And that’s exactly what I did.”
Gordon was held to just two points in the second. At the same time, Florida State’s defense on Fair and Woolley evened out Gordon’s brief drop-off and made room for the Seminoles to hold a 12-point halftime advantage. Then, Latson sealed the deal.
She suffered foul trouble early in the contest, having to sit with three fouls for the last eight minutes and change of the second quarter. Right after she returned to begin the third, Latson drained a 3 to put FSU up 15. It was the first of five third-quarter baskets, and 13 points, for Latson, who drove the rim with tenacity and finished through contact on Syracuse’s frontcourt.
Latson’s dominance all but put the game away as FSU led by 22 after three quarters.
“They’re two very good players,” Woolley said of Latson and Gordon. “They outplayed us, outhearted us and beat us today.”
Fair and Woolley’s production was a far cry from Gordon and Latson’s. The latter totaled 49 points on 55.8% shooting, while SU’s duo had 33 on a 37.9% clip. March often comes down to guard play. And for the Orange, whose top two options reside in the backcourt, they can’t afford to lose the guard battle once the NCAA Tournament begins.
“That wasn’t who we were,” Fair said. “And that’s all it’s going to take for us to be who we are, and that’s (to) tell each other the truth and regroup and reset.”
