Syracuse Rally Comes Up Just Short at Miami

The Orange battled back from a double digit deficit but did not have enough to top the Hurricanes.

Syracuse’s Christianna Carr saw her first shot ricochet off the basket tonight vs Miami. Teisha Hyman then got a similar result on an open pull-up, as did Najé Murray soon after. After blinking twice, Vonn Read looked up and saw his team down 10-3 after missing its first six shots, forcing an early retreat via a timeout.

When play resumed, Syracuse finally ripped the seal off their basket on a Murray triple roughly four minutes into the game. But even after overcoming that slow start, the Orange struggled to keep their offense up and running, as the Hurricanes never relinquished their lead in handing the Orange their seventh loss in their last eight contests.

Although Syracuse indeed struggled to put the ball through the hoop tonight, shooting 29.9 percent from the field, their -17 rebound differential played an even larger role in the losing effort. Oddly enough though, it was not Miami’s taller players Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi and Lola Pendande who swallowed up Syracuse on the glass, but instead guards Moulayna Johnson Sidi Baba and Ja’Leah Williams, who combined for 23 boards.

For the Orange, Murray kept her team in it as long as she could, dropping 15 points while shooting 4-9 from beyond the arc. But with just over a minute left in the third period, she was handed two technical fouls and consequently ejected after stepping over Miami’s Jasmyne Roberts after the two battled for a loose ball.

To Syracuse’s credit, they showed some heart after Murray’s departure, starting out the fourth period on a 16-4 run which cut their deficit to one point. But as they had several times already, the Hurricanes responded, going on a 9-0 run which put their lead back into double-digits with under two minutes to play.

Two triples from Christianna Carr and Alaina Rice made it a one possession game and put some pressure back on Miami with under a minute to go. But the clock then forced Syracuse to begin the foul game, which Miami played to a tee in closing things out to beat the Orange 71-65.

This loss drops the Orange to an overall 9-11 record and a 2-8 mark for conference play. Their road only gets tougher from here on out, facing No. 4 Louisville who already beat them by double digits earlier this year. The contest will see them return to the Dome though, which hopefully grants them some much needed extra energy.