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Syracuse strung together consecutive wins for the second time this season. First, it took down Virginia Tech 93-87 on the road on Feb. 6, when guard Sophie Burrows recorded a career-high 28 points. Then, the Orange defeated conference bottom-dweller Wake Forest 62-50 Sunday, spurred by a 23-9 fourth quarter advantage.

SU entered its first West Coast Atlantic Coast Conference matchup with Stanford with a chance to compile its longest winning run of the season and edge closer to qualifying for the ACC Tournament as one of the top 15 teams in the conference standings.

But it couldn’t do that. Syracuse, which entered the contest 12th in the ACC, fell to the Cardinal, who sat 15th. Stanford made 45.5% of its 3s and had five players reach double figures. Meanwhile, Syracuse shot 33.8% overall and dropped an important game on its path to potentially reach the ACC Tournament.

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s (10-14, 4-9 ACC) 79-58 loss to Stanford (12-12, 4-9 ACC) Thursday:

Stanford jumps ahead early

With the 10 p.m. ET start time, Syracuse sleep walked through the opening stages. The Orange missed their first seven shots. Burrows went up for a mid-range shot, which Elena Bosgana blocked.

Luckily, Stanford also started slowly without its leading scorer, Nunu Agara, for the second straight game. But the Cardinal got down low to score their first points, jumping out to a 10-0 points in paint advantage.

Off the bench, Saniaa Wilson provided four early points for the Orange. But Stanford’s Brooke Demetre answered with three 3-pointers on successive possessions to extend its lead to more than 10 points. The triples kept raining down for the Cardinal — Bosgana and Demetre each added another in the final minutes of the first quarter. At the end of the quarter, Stanford shot 5-for-8 from 3, and the Orange went 0-for-5.

Everything seemed to be going the Cerdinal’s way. SU shot 26.3% in the first quarter, while Stanford netted 55% of its shots. The result was a 14-point lead after 10 minutes, showing Syracuse, fresh off cross-country travel, hadn’t traveled well.

Defensive woes

Stanford was on pace for 108 points after one quarter due to Syracuse’s hapless defense. Once the Cardinal got hot from 3, the Orange kept giving them open looks, not closing out well on Stanford’s shooters.

In transition early in the second quarter, seconds after Madeline Potts had sank a triple, Stanford’s Mary Ashley Stevenson was left open under the basket for a layup to answer, as SU didn’t recover quick enough.

The defensive woes are no surprise. Syracuse gives up the most points per game in the ACC with 71.4. What’s more, Stanford’s productive 3-point shooting — going 7-for-15 in the first half — continued the trend of the Orange allowing opponents to make 35% of its shots from distance, in the bottom 30 in Division I. Stanford, which shoots a top-35-in-the-country 35.6% from 3, also showcased its prowess from beyond the arc, making SU’s defense pay with a barrage from behind the arc.

The Orange were also exposed on the offensive boards, where they rank just outside the bottom 30 nationally and allow their opponents to garner 13.3 offensive rebounds a game entering Thursday’s matchup. With the Cardinal gathering six offensive rebounds, Stanford extended possessions and scored six second-chance points.

Syracuse’s defense improved noticeably out of the break, but Stanford made two straight 3s to close the third quarter and stretch its lead to 18 points, all but sealing the game.

Orange’s top scorers quieted

Burrows has been on a tear recently. The sophomore set career highs in points in two straight games, scoring 22 points in a loss to Virginia on Feb. 2, and then setting another career-high (28) in SU’s next game at Virginia Tech.

But in Palo Alto, Burrows was held quiet. She shot 1-for-6 in the first half and scored just two first-half points, though she did grab six first-half rebounds. Senior Georgia Woolley also struggled to get going after scoring a game-high 21 points against Wake Forest Sunday. Woolley, the Orange’s leading scorer, shot 2-for-8 in the first but finished with a team-high seven points, sinking one of Syracuse’s three triples in the first half.

Woolley drained a 3-pointer in the middle of the third quarter to trim the deficit to 10 points. On Syracuse’s next possession, she got to the rim to finish a layup but couldn’t convert the three-point play from the charity stripe. Woolley reeled in another 3 with under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Holding both Burrows and Woolley in check was integral for Stanford to secure the crucial victory. Woolley was the only Orange player to score double digits with 18 points, while Burrows went cold with six points on 3-for-11 shooting, not making any 3s.

Freshmen involvement

With this season almost at its conclusion, it’s worth looking toward the future. Syracuse’s first player off the bench, as the Orange trailed 10-3 midway through the first quarter, was Shy Hawkins, who has played a paltry 10.6 minutes per game. Hawkins made a quick impact, feeding a nice post pass to Wilson, who converted a layup. Hawkins notched two layups in the game.

Another influential freshman off the bench was Potts. After SU shot 0-for-5 from 3 in the first quarter, Potts canned two straight triples to begin the second. Potts, who has shot over 35% from distance, provided a momentary answer to the Cardinal’s barrage of treys.

Olivia Schmitt isn’t known as a 3-point shooter. The freshman guard has shot 2-for-22 (9.1%) from 3 so far this season, but she knocked down a 3 early in the third quarter.

As this season’s prospects slip through the hourglass, developing freshmen will be paramount to build for the future. And in the late stages of the season, some of the freshmen showed their growth throughout their first collegiate season.

Published on February 14, 2025 at 12:04 am

Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal