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Through its first three games of the season, the number 84 has been a bête noire for Syracuse. The Orange have conceded 84 points in each of their contests this campaign. They outscored Niagara 108-84 in their opener before falling to Saint Joseph’s 84-70 and No. 11 Maryland 84-73. Consequently, SU had its first losing record since 2021.

But, as SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack needed reminding after Syracuse’s loss to Maryland Wednesday, it’s early in the season. Syracuse hosted Fairleigh Dickinson Sunday in a chance to snap its two-game skid.

SU scored the first 10 points of the game and kept FDU at arm’s length for the remainder of the matchup. Despite a dry spell in the second quarter, the Orange exploded to outscore the Knights 23-11 in the third quarter. By the game’s end, 11 Syracuse players tallied a point.

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s (2-2, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) 77-58 win over Fairleigh Dickinson (4-1, 0-0 Northeast Conference):

Camp’s comeback

On Wednesday, in SU’s loss to Maryland, sixth-year senior Dominique Camp didn’t play in the first half. However, she logged 19 minutes and 10 points in the second half. When asked why Camp didn’t see any action before the break, Legette-Jack said Camp didn’t practice well.

“Don’t give a kid something she doesn’t earn,” Legette-Jack said. “She earned the right to play the second half, and if she doesn’t earn it in practice on Friday, she won’t play again.”

Camp then started Sunday’s contest against FDU. Camp, who missed all of last season with an injury, played with intensity from the get-go. Fourteen seconds in, she assisted on an Izabel Varejão turnaround layup for the first points of the game.

Camp followed that up by notching a steal and racing downcourt after SU secured a defensive rebound to catch the Knights off guard defensively. Later, Camp uncorked from the left of the arc and sank a 3-pointer. She ended the first quarter with three points and three assists.

In the second quarter, Camp dished out three more assists. She was on the end of a fast-break layup in the third quarter to push SU’s lead to 49-33. The guard finished the contest with five points and eight assists.

2nd-quarter struggles

Five seconds into the second quarter, Syracuse extended its lead to 27-16. But then the Orange went on a four-minute scoring drought, missing nine straight shots. Luckily for SU, Fairleigh Dickinson experienced similar struggles in the second quarter.

The Knights only scored seven points in the first five minutes of the stanza to Syracuse’s six. Two of those six points came in the final 30 seconds before the five-minute mark.

On one sequence for the Orange, at the 6:44 mark, Angelica Velez missed a layup before Varejão grabbed the offensive rebound. Varejão went back up with the ball, only to miss it again. She snatched her own miss to keep the ball with SU, but the third attempt from close range of the possession also was off the mark. This time, Sophie Burrows brought down the board and on the fourth effort, her shot didn’t fall. FDU’s Lilly Parke gathered the ball to end Syracuse’s 10-second swoon near the hoop.

After shooting 1-for-10 to start the quarter, SU closed the period with a 6-for-10 clip. Meanwhile, FDU managed a similarly poor 5-for-16 (31.3%) field goal percentage in the second. Both teams’ misses did allow SU to pad its rebounding stats. In the second quarter alone, Varejão registered six rebounds — four on offense — and Kyra Wood brought down two.

Paint dominance

Syracuse held a notable size advantage over the Knights and exposed them by sending the ball down low. In the first quarter, SU outscored the Knights 10-0 in the paint, consistently feeding Varejão and Wood down low. Wood had six points and Varejão added four for the Orange, who outrebounded FDU 12-8 in the first quarter.

By halftime, as SU led by 10, 70% of FDU’s shots were from 3-point range while it remained outscored in the paint 20-4. Even with SU’s second-half offensive troubles, eight of Syracuse’s 15 points came in the paint. The Knights, for their part, had zero layups in the first half, relying heavily on 3s, attempting 21.

By the midway point of the third, SU’s margin in the category ballooned to 28-4 thanks to four straight layups. On the defensive side, FDU was repeatedly denied when it ventured inside, getting blocked six times. The Knights continued launching 3s, showing no interest in getting to the cup. FDU went 10-for-32 from 3 and only put up 20 two-pointers, scoring six layups. On the other side, SU kept driving inside, finishing the game with a 40-6 advantage in paint points and 48 2-point shots.

Cleaning up turnovers

In Syracuse’s season-opening win over Niagara, the Orange turned the ball over 30 times — the most they have had since they joined the ACC — and the Purple Eagles scored 33 points off those turnovers. Following that game, in its loss to Saint Joseph’s, SU conceded possession 21 times and allowed 27 points off turnovers.

The number of turnovers dropped in SU’s game versus Maryland Wednesday, as it only gave up the ball 13 times, resulting in 17 Terrapins points. The trend of lessening turnovers in each game continued into Sunday’s matchup with FDU. The Orange only had five turnovers, leading to only two Fairleigh Dickinson points.

Published on November 17, 2024 at 3:55 pm

Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal