The losing streak on the road is finally over. Syracuse improves to 10-12 on the season and 3-8 in the ACC after receiving its first road win in Charlottesville.
Naje Murray had herself a day. She led all scores with a season high of 24, shooting 8-11 from the field. At the end of the first quarter she tallied 13 points, which was more than the entire Virginia team.
Syracuse’s only healthy forward, Alaysia Styles got tangled up with Virginia's Eleah Parker forcing hobble off the court and into the locker room. She returned to the game with two minutes left in the first quarter and played the duration of the game before fouling out with a minute to go in the fourth quarter.
The Orange led 22-12 going into the second quarter. Syracuse scored back to back layups from Styles and Alaina Rice to extend its lead to 14 with just under nine minutes to go. The Orange offense froze and went seven minutes without making a field goal, until Rice scored a layup on second chance points.
Rice was the only player to come off the bench for the Orange. In her 24 minutes on the court she scored eight points and grabbed eight boards.
‘Cuse led 35-26 at half time and Virginia has struggled in conference play all season coming out of the locker room. The Orange went on a 9-3 run to extend their lead to 19.
Syracuse’s leading scorer, Teisha Hyman scored 13 points on the night, making this her eleventh straight game in double figures. She also had eight rebounds and five assists.
The Orange came into this game ranked 7th in the nation in free throws shooting 80% from the line. Tonight, Chrislyn Carr went 10-10 from the foul line and Syracuse went 26-31.
The women are off on Thursday and will continue their road trip to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers for the second time in two and a half weeks. The Orange played the Panthers on January 30th in the Carrier Dome when they broke a six game losing streak. Syracuse limited Pittsburgh to only 2-21 from behind the arc.
After losing five straight road games, Syracuse will look for their second straight road win Sunday. Tip off is set for 2 p.m. eastern on ACC Network.