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Syracuse eliminated, falls to Clemson 88-69 in first round of the ACC Tournament

No. 12 Syracuse and No. 13 Clemson kicked off the first game of the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina Wednesday Afternoon. Syracuse’s season comes to an end after Clemson defeats Syracuse with a final score of 88-69.

After leaving in the third quarter of Sunday’s game on crutches due to an ankle injury, it was unsure if Naje Murray would be ready to play three days later in the ACC Tournament. Murray traveled to Greensboro and was on the court for the full 40 minutes fighting with her team to hope to extend their season.

The Clemson Tigers put up the first points of the game from Daisha Bradford, who finished with 11. The Orange quickly responded with a layup from Alaysia Styles and it was a back and forth game in the first quarter. Styles finished with 11 points and eight boards.

After ten minutes of five ties, and four lead changes…the Orange were down 21-16 at the end of the first quarter, but in the second, Clemson’s lead grew bigger and bigger and Syracuse could not get the lead back in their hands.

Clemson took an 8-0 run before Syracuse responded with a 6-0 run for themselves. But every time Syracuse picked up momentum, Clemson had an answer.

With just four seconds left before the half, Delicia Washington made the layup. Washington received a technical foul after the play for chirping at Teisha Hyman.

In Washington’s 38 minutes, she recorded a double-double with 33 points and 11 rebounds along with six assists to lead Clemson to their first win since February 10th over Wake Forest.

After Chrislyn Carr made the free throw, Hyman responded off the fast break making the reverse lay up. Hyman led the Orange with 25 points, eight assists and 7 rebounds. This marks Hyman’s eighteenth straight game in double figures.

Syracuse closed out the half with a 10-2 run and went into halftime trailing 38-32.

Clemson’s Kiona Gains went down early in the fourth quarter. She walked off the court after teammate Hannah Hank elbowed her in the throat. Gains did not return to the game. She contributed four points and one rebound off the bench.

In the regular season meeting between these two teams, Syracuse defeated Clemson 86-46 for their biggest win of the season.

In the previous match up, Clemson struggled from beyond the arc only shooting 15.8% and Washington was held to only five points while Syracuse made 13 three-pointers. But today, the Orange were the team struggling from beyond the arc making four of 24 attempted three-pointers.

Syracuse’s season has come to an end and Clemson will face No. 5 Virginia Tech tomorrow at 11 a.m.

Katelyn McCarthy covers Syracuse Women's Basketball for WAER and is a graduate student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.