No. 24 Florida State’s defense stifles red-hot Dyaisha Fair, Syracuse in 78-65 win
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Dyaisha Fair picked up the rebound and moved up the court with two minutes remaining in the game. Syracuse trailed Florida State 71-65.
FSU’s Sara Bejedi stood in front of Fair who immediately motioned to Dariauna Lewis for a screen. Utilizing it, Fair lost Bejedi momentarily before Lewis’ defender, Makayla Timpson, hedged hard, blocking off Fair’s forward trajectory.
Somewhat trapped, Fair retreated and there was Bejedi again. She tried the same thing again — same result. Unable to create her own shot, and now with just half the shot clock remaining, Fair coughed the ball up to Georgia Woolley. Woolley drove inside, rushed and chucked up an attempt that didn’t even draw rim. Timpson corralled the rebound.
Fair totaled her 2,500th career point in the third quarter of Syracuse’s game against Virginia, becoming just one of two active players to hit that number in collegiate play. Finishing with 36 points against the Cavaliers that afternoon, Fair also tied a program record with eight 3-pointers.
Since then, although she’s finished all 27 games this season in double-digit scoring, Fair’s been on a scoring tear, even by her standards. In a loss to then-No.13 Virginia Tech, she had 20. Against Boston College, it was 24, and against UNC, it was 23. She finished with 22 facing Notre Dame.
Tonight, against No.24 Florida State, she tallied just 19. The performance matched a game high, shared with FSU’s Ta’niya Latson, but it was her lowest point total since Syracuse’s loss to Louisville at the end of January. The Seminoles (21-7, 10-5 Atlantic Coast) didn’t necessarily stop Fair, but they held her at bay, enough so to beat the Orange (16-11, 7-9 Atlantic Coast) at home, 78-65.
Things weren’t always hard for Fair, though. In the second quarter, Latson stood in front of her as Fair maintained her dribble. Then, Fair went between her legs and stepped back once, twice, freeing herself from Latson before shooting from range. She canned the jumper.
On another play, Fair crossed over multiple times against Bejedi and easily got by her going to her left. Suddenly she rose up just inside the free-throw line for a floater. Freezing Bejedi, Fair’s uncontested attempt fell through.
Fair’s 19 points came from mid-range jumpers, run-out layups and 3-pointers. Although she got the better of Bejedi on multiple occasions, Bejedi returned the favor. Early in the first quarter, Fair drove toward the middle of the paint, but Bejedi stayed with her every step of the way, moving her feet and keeping her hands away from making any sort of contact. When Fair shot, it wasn’t a clean look and her jumper fell short.
From the jump, Bejedi face-guarded Fair — a tactic that Florida State head coach Brooke Wyckoff was fine with, even if Bejedi wouldn’t be of much use on help defense.
With one hand extended in the passing lanes at all times, discouraging the Orange to pass to Fair, Bejedi’s effort paid dividends in the second quarter. Dribbling around the perimeter, Teisha Hyman motioned for a play to be drawn up for Fair. Hyman headed toward Fair, on the right wing, for a dribble hand-off. Realizing what was coming, Bejedi kept her head on a swivel and her hand up. Hyman threw a pass that wasn’t there while Fair darted toward the baseline, trying to free herself up. The miscommunication resulted in a turnover, one of 12 from SU.
To start the third quarter, Bejedi’s ability to keep a hand in Fair’s face forced her to airball. It was an occasion so rare that even Fair looked surprised as she trotted back on defense.
When Bejedi wasn’t guarding Fair, the responsibility fell to Latson. Despite being just a freshman, Latson’s three-inch height advantage helped force difficult shots, her length disturbing how clean of a look Fair got at the basket. After her airball around the seven minute mark in the penultimate quarter, Fair missed just two more shots.
One was another step-back 3 from the left wing that hit the far-side rim before bouncing out. The other came from a slash to the basket with time winding down on the period. Latson got a piece of Fair’s shot attempt, which ended up hitting both the backboard and the rim before falling out.
But to start the fourth quarter, Fair was hot. First came a floater in the paint before she jabbed at Bejedi near the short corner before rising and hitting a shot off of an inbounds play. Then came an impossible 3 from the right wing to make the score 67-65 with advantage still to the Seminoles. However, Syracuse went the rest of the game without scoring, failing to register a field goal in the final four minutes of play.
As expected, the Orange looked to Fair for every offensive play. But, when she wasn’t face-guarded by Bejedi, who could also keep pace with her, Latson stayed in front, bothering a fall-away jump shot near the left corner with 2:28 remaining in the game.
Using excellent one-on-one defense and great communication on every switch and ball-screen, Florida State whittled away at Fair’s patience. In every corner was a trap, and in every drive came help defense.
A little over a minute remained in the fourth quarter, and Syracuse was down six. Standing several feet behind the 3–point arc, Fair jabbed a couple times at Bejedi before firing. Her shot bounced against the backboard and into Timpson’s arms. Maybe she could’ve created a better shot if she got past Bejedi but then Timpson would be there — with the rest of a disciplined Florida State defense.
