Despite leading No. 6 NC State by as many as nine points, Syracuse women's basketball was unable to secure a win down the stretch. The Orange picked up their first home loss of the season with a final score of 56-54.
With just 3.9 seconds left to play and down 55-54, Syracuse would get the ball back on its side of the court because of a held ball by the NC State basket. Teisha Hyman was brought in to make the inbound pass. Dariauna Lewis was positioned just past the basket, waiting for the pass.
Having to throw the ball over a swarm of NC State defenders, Hyman was unable to place the pass correctly. Dariauna Lewis got her fingertips on the ball, sending it out of bounds. The Orange fouled NC State and sent them to the charity stripe, where it went 1-2.
Syracuse got the ball back, but there wasn’t enough time to get a shot off. In the final seconds of the game, a critical error cost the Orange a win over a top-10 opponent.
“Sometimes, as a coach, you want to kick yourself,” Head Coach Felisha Legette-Jack said of the crucial final play. “You wonder if we sat Teisha too long in order to get in there and make that pass… so this is our team loss, including myself.”
Georgia Woolley was the star of the show for the Orange. The sophomore guard put up a season-high 23 points, with seven rebounds and an assist as well. Woolley knocked down four threes on eight shots and shot 9-15 from the field.
Right behind Woolley was Dyaisha Fair, who put up 14 points, six rebounds, and four assists. NC State swarmed Fair with defenders every chance they got, forcing her to take heavily contested shots. She went 6-23 from the field against the Wolfpack.
With this being one of Fair’s less stellar performances this season, she was visibly disappointed while speaking with the media after the game. Her head was down, and she was staring intently at the final box score.
Fair was asked what was going through her mind after the loss during post-game media availability.
“Just thinking about how we can continue to get better,” Fair said in response. That would be all she said to the media after the game.
NC State’s centers, Camille Hobby and River Baldwin were the difference makers for the Wolfpack. At six-foot-three and six-foot-five, respectively, Hobby and Baldwin enjoyed the size advantage for most of the game.
Before the half, Syracuse struggled to contain the two bigs. They led the Wolfpack in points going into the half and were outplaying the Orange in the paint. At the break, however, some clear adjustments were made, and Syracuse came out of the locker room with a plan to keep them under control.
The Orange managed to roughly even out the points scored off of turnovers, second-chance points, and rebounds, allowing them to keep the game close, or even in their favor at times, throughout the second half.
Coach Legette-Jack emphasized after the game that while the loss is disappointing, playing as well as they did against such an elite opponent is nothing to scoff at.
“Growth isn’t easy. Growth is uncomfortable. Growth can make you feel that you’re not good enough,” Coach Legette-Jack said. “I thought we competed against a great, very well-coached team. That says a lot about what we’re trying to become here.”
Syracuse will face the Pittsburgh Panthers on Thursday in the JMA Wireless Dome. Tipoff is set for 6:00 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ACC Network.