Was a week off the best thing for Syracuse Women’s Basketball?
By Josh Solomon | @JoshSolo29
After snapping a three-game losing streak with a 12-point victory over Clemson on January 26th, it seemed that Syracuse Women’s Basketball might have been turning a winning page into the rest of conference play. The Orange also sit near the bottom of the ACC scoring 71 points per game. However, against the Tigers, four Cuse scorers reached double figures. Two of those are SU bigs in Kyra Wood and Izabel Varejao. Both players grabbed enough rebounds to also secure double-doubles in the contest. After a dominant win though, it was break time for the Orange as the squad had a full week off before its next contest against Virginia.
During the days off, Cuse head coach Felisha Legette-Jack promised her players rest and recovery from lingering injuries that might have been picked up in conference play. While her players were recovering, Legette-Jack did not make note of any players in particular but took a few trips to scout possibly future SU talent. The lingering question now is, was this time off for the Orange a positive or negative?
The answer to that question might have been apparent in Syracuse’s 70-67 loss against Virginia on Sunday in the JMA Wireless Dome. In a back-and-forth contest through three quarters, FLJ’s squad was effective and kept pace with UVA. This was despite the Cavaliers shooting over 50% from the field whereas the Orange were shooting just 42%. But what really slowed the Cuse down was its lack of success from deep. Syracuse nailed just six of its 25 attempts from beyond the arc. If you pair those stats with a single-digit scoring effort in the final quarter of the game, it does not look pretty. The Orange score was doubled by the Cavaliers in the fourth quarter 18-9, leading to the loss.
“We had three great quarters, and then we panicked down the stretch,” Leggette-Jack said after the contest. “We didn’t have to panic.”
In a tough loss for Syracuse, there were two spotlights. Both SU’s Kyra Wood and Sophie Burrows reached double-digit points. Wood achieved her sixth double-double of the season with 18 points and 15 rebounds. For Burrows, she scored a career-high 22 points in the loss.
“I think we gotta keep working towards a full 40 minutes,” Wood said postgame. “There was no reason we needed to change what we were doing, we were playing good team basketball” Burrows mentioned. “We’ve been in this situation a few times now…we gotta just keep playing as a team and find the open loo.”
Looking back, Syracuse has lost four of its last five games in conference play. The Orange have an overall record of 8-13 but just two wins in 10 games against ACC opponents which places the team near the bottom of the standings. SU’s next opportunity to turn things around comes with a trip to Virginia Tech on Thursday. Tip-off between the Orange and the Hokies is at 6 p.m. Be sure to follow my X account @JoshSolo29 as I will be down in Blacksburg for coverage of the contest.
