UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Coming off a dominant fourth-quarter performance to take down Utah on Friday night, the Syracuse Orange had a chance to make a statement to the nation on Sunday. Instead, SU proved
that it is still a work in progress, and that the gap between the Orange and the nation’s elite remains a chasm.
Felisha Legette-Jack called it an “old fasioned butt whooping.” By the end of the first quarter against No. 6 Michigan, Syracuse trailed 20-6, and the result was never in question. The Orange took their first loss of the season, 81-55 to a Wolverines team that many think could be one of the last four standing in Phoenix when April rolls around.
The favorites never let Syracuse settle into the game. Head coach Kim Barnes Arico pressed and trapped the Orange guards early in the game, forcing turnovers and rushed possessions. In the first quarter, Dominique Darius and Angelica Velez each dribbled directly into a half-court trap, and paths to the paint were blocked off.
“You can’t go to the corner,” Legette-Jack said. “We share with our players, ‘don’t go to the corner,‘ and they kept going to the corner. It’s almost like I was getting punked out there myself, so I don’t know what that nerve was about. I’d rather the ball get thrown over out of bounds like we did to Uche a few times, because at least we’re trying to stay in the middle. After a while, you got to take the ownership of it, and we’ve got to reacreate what you shouldn’t do.”
It took Syracuse nearly four minutes to get its most experienced player and second-leading scorer, Laila Phelia, the basketball. Phelia played her first three seasons of college basketball for Michigan, where she was an All-Big Ten player, so Barnes Arico knows her strengths and weaknesses very well. Despite their relationship, Barnes Arico didn’t offer much beyond an acknowledgement when asked about Phelia in the postgame press conference.
“She’s a great player, she’s doing a good job for them,” Barnes Arico said. “But I was just really locked in on us.”
While Phelia made her first field goal to get SU on the board, it would be one of just two made field goals in the opening quarter for the Orange. As the teams traded turnovers early, the Wolverines pulled down many of their misses, and pressured Syracuse’s defensive rebounders when they couldn’t. It led to some easy baskets for Michigan, who finished the quarter on an 11-0 run when Macy Brown made a fastbreak layup off a Velez turnover.
The Orange broke the scoring drought early in the second quarter, when Uche Izoje made a layup, and then even went on a 7-0 run to cut the Michigan lead to ten after a Darius triple. But quickly after, Izoje picked up her second foul, and sat for the rest of the half. It made an already overmatched team on the glass struggle even more, as the Wolverines would win the first half rebound battle 31-11.
“We got boxed out and we stayed boxed out,” Legette-Jack said. “That’s not who we are, that’s not what I coach.”
Legette-Jack was looking for any sort of energy in the second quarter, playing 11 different players in the first half. But most of SU’s young players struggled to carve out space, and played frantically against the full-court press.
Syracuse brought the Michigan lead back down from 16 to 12, but Olivia Olson drained a three just eleven seconds later, and then the Wolverines added one more basket to bring the lead back to the largest mark — 17 — at half.
It was more of the same early in the second half, as Michigan’s press forced four turnovers before the first media timeout, and scored nine points off those turnovers. Legette-Jack went to a bigger lineup, pairing Izoje with Oyindamola Akinbolawa — who didn’t play in the first half — and it helped Syracuse on the glass, but not in many other categories.
The Orange finally drilled two more threes in the third quarter, with one from Phelia and one from Darius, but Michigan continued to run away, scoring 26 in the frame to open up a 25-point lead.
Legette-Jack emptied out the bench in the fourth quarter, putting Olivia Schmitt and Keira Scott in the game for the first time as the Wolverines extended the lead to as much as 33.
Phelia ended up leading the Orange with 13 points, while Izoje notched her first double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
These two games at Mohegan Sun are the only two non-conference battles for Syracuse outside of the JMA Wireless Dome. While Friday showed that the Orange are once again able to control games on the glass against high-major foes, displaying a fiestiness that could play well in the ACC, Sunday proved that it’s not enough to compete with the nation’s best.
SU returns home to face a solid Howard squad next Sunday before the SEC/ACC Challenge matchup with Auburn, and the ACC opener in Dallas against SMU the next week.
