In its penultimate non-conference game, Syracuse Orange women’s basketball took care of business once again. The Orange won their tenth game of the season, improving to 10-1 with a 72-54 win over Binghamton
inside the JMA Wireless Dome. Dominique Darius led the way with 17 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists.
Neither team was able to make a run in the first quarter. The Orange couldn’t figure out Binghamton’s 2-3 zone, and the Bearcats found a way to push in transition. Sophie Burrows missed her first three shots, and sat the final five minutes of the first quarter.
“We knew they were going to try and speed us up,” Burrows said. “So I think we kind of fell into their hands a little bit. So going into the second quarter, there was a really big focus on just slowing the game down a little bit in my head.”
Head coach Felisha Legette-Jack told the Orange to play their game, and they started to do so. Syracuse began to dominate the glass in the second quarter, and Darius led a run to push the lead out to 17.
She drilled two threes to open the quarter, sent a pass to Uche Izoje for a layup, and then got into the paint for two more jumpers to help build the lead.
“I just try to take what the defense gives me,” Darius said. “I think early on, me attacking the basket helps me get to my three, and after that, I just try to facilitate and look for my teammates.”
As Darius began to find the seams in Binghamton’s zone, Syracuse began to rebound its own misses. By the end of the second quarter, the Orange were plus-nine on the glass, finding their rebounding identity.
In the third quarter, that continued, as Syracuse outrebounded Binghamton 19-9. Between the second and third quarters, SU outrebounded Binghamton 32-13. It’s no wonder that the Orange outscored the Bearcats 45-24 in those two quarters as well. Legette-Jack still thinks Syracuse needs to react better when it wins on the glass.
“We were getting rebounds on defensive boards, and we were waiting for the guards to come,” she said. “I think Uche can bring the ball up the floor, or Keira can bring the ball down the floor. Everybody except, I don’t want Big O bringing the ball down the floor. But everybody else just cleared the path a little bit.”
After a little bit of punch-back from Binghamton in the second quarter, cutting the lead from 17 to 6, Syracuse expanded the lead back out to 11 at halftime, as Burrows picked off a pass and took it the other way for a basket.
It took until the halfway point of the third quarter for Binghamton to make a field goal, and the Bearcats only made two in the third ten minute frame. Syracuse pushed the lead out to as many as 24, and led by 22 heading into the fourth quarter.
Izoje notched yet another double-double, with 12 points and 14 rebounds, as she still adjusts to the way the game is played — and taught — in the States.
“She doesn’t like too many people telling her the same thing,” Aurora Almon said. “But now she’s kind of learning, she’s getting better at that.”
Syracuse emptied the bench a little bit in the fourth quarter, and freshman Justus Fitzgerald suffered an injury, needing to be helped off the floor.
The Orange’s next game is on Friday morning against Mercyhurst at 10:30 a.m. That is the final non-conference game of the season, as Syracuse looks for its second 11-1 start in the last three seasons.
