Syracuse, NY – The Syracuse women’s basketball team responded to its worst performance of the season by leading Florida State from the opening tip and never trailing in an 82-72 win Thursday night at the JMA Wireless Dome.
Laila Phelia gave Syracuse (12-2, 2-1 ACC) the lead with a jumper 21 seconds into the game, and the Orange held the lead the rest of the way, securing a buzzer-beater victory secured by a pair of clutch alley-oop baskets.
Dominique Darius set the tone for Syracuse with six points in the opening 2 minutes, while freshman center Uche Izoje, already a three-time ACC Rookie of the Week winner, turned in his best performance yet against a Conference power.
Izoje finished with 21 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks and scored the game’s biggest basket for the Orange with 56.8 seconds left.
With the Seminoles (5-10, 0-3) scratching to within two points late in the game, Izoje carved out a post-up spot inside and converted an alley-oop layup off a pass from Sophie Burrows to give the Orange a 76-72 lead.
The play was a near duplicate of the one the Orange successfully ran two minutes earlier, when a Burrows-Izoja connection also resulted in an alley-oop bucket on a three-point play.
Darius had 19 points for Syracuse, while Burrows, who came off the bench for the first time this season, had an all-around performance with 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
With the game on the line, Syracuse coach Felisha Legette-Jack opted for Burrows’ decision-making and Izoje’s shooting.
Izoje, a 6-foot-3 center, made 10 of 13 field goals and showed a fine shooting touch at the free throw line. His inside presence helped the Orange outscore the Seminoles by 27 (56-29).
Florida’s Sole Williams matched Izoje with 21 points to lead the Seminoles, but went 8-for-20 in the effort and turned the ball over six times.
The win at Syracuse came after a 20-point home loss to Duke on Sunday, just SU’s second loss of the year.
Because of that defeat, the Orange enter Thursday’s game projected as one of the first teams out of the NCAA Tournament field in Charlie Creme’s Latest ESPN Bracketology. A win over the Seminoles likely kept the Orange on the edge of the cut.
The NCAA NET rankings currently rank nine of 12 SUs wins as Quad 4 wins, which is considered the easiest classification of games, with two more seen as Quad 3 wins.
Syracuse’s next game is at Wake Forest on Sunday at 2 p.m. The Demon Deacons went into Thursday night’s game against Pittsburgh 11-3 (1-1) with a 117 NET rating.
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