SU’s ever-shifting defense struggles to improve, remains last in ACC scoring defense
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Purdue’s Jeanae Terry needed one crossover.
Switching directions from right to left, she sped past Georgia Woolley in the backcourt. As Terry neared the 3-point arc, Dariauna Lewis was slow to get back, trailing the play with Woolley. Asia Strong had her back turned. Teisha Hyman and Dyaisha Fair marked their assignments on either wing, but no one stopped the ball.
Going end-to-end, Terry slowed as she neared the basket and made the uncontested layup. All the Orange could do was stare at each other in disbelief.
The basket helped the Boilermakers to a one-point lead. But, by the end of the opening half, SU was down by 20. Purdue ended up winning 87-78 — still the most points the Orange have allowed by a single team all season long.
Throughout the season, Syracuse has struggled to keep its opponents’ scoring totals low. In nonconference play, apart from its breakdown against Purdue, the Orange also conceded 82 against Penn State. SU started Atlantic Coast Conference play with a win over Wake Forest, but proceeded to allow 86 points in an away loss to Louisville.
Entering its regular-season finale against Pittsburgh this Thursday, Syracuse sits last in defense in the Atlantic Coast Conference, allowing an average of 68 points per game. The Orange also give up 12.5 offensive rebounds per game along with 15.3 assists — placing them at 282nd and 324th in the country, respectively, per Her Hoop Stats. A middling ACC team sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble, SU (17-11, 8-9 ACC) has also allowed the second most 2-pointers (591) of all Division-I programs, per Her Hoop Stats as well.
“It hurts,” Syracuse head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said when mentioning Syracuse’s defensive standing within the conference. “It hurts.”
Syracuse boasts some dynamic defensive attributes. Fair averages 2.5 steals a game while Woolley averages 2.1, good enough for second and fifth place in the ACC. Lewis ranks ninth in league play with 1.2 blocks per game and is second on the boards, producing 9.1 rebounds. But a few glaring issues have hurt the Orange throughout the season.
After the first month of play, Legette-Jack still wasn’t sure if she wanted her team playing zone or man defense. In its opening exhibition game against Le Moyne, Syracuse squeaked by with a three-point victory, allowing the Dolphins to produce 11 3-pointers off of 44% shooting.
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Then, when matching up with Stony Brook a few days later, the Orange allowed just one shot from range to fall, holding the Seawolves to scoring in single digit totals for two of four quarters.
“If we can continue to get better at (defense), I think we’re going to be a better team,” Legette-Jack said, though slightly displeased with how Syracuse competed on the defensive end.
Legette-Jack also added that the sole reason why she switched to a 2-3 zone was because of her team’s poor communication against Stony Brook. But halfway through its five-game home stand to begin the season, Syracuse beat Colgate by 24 points, improving to 3-0.
Despite the win, Legette-Jack said post-game that her team had a couple of things to work on. The Orange then continued its unbeaten start by defeating Binghamton 92-59. But, there were still improvements to be made.
“I’m a defensive coach,” Legette-Jack said. “We want to score a lot of points but we want to defend under 59 points.”
Prior to ACC play, Syracuse recorded 176 points in two games. Wake Forest visited on Dec. 18, and the Orange garnered 16 points off turnovers and 14 off fast-break opportunities in a 67-58 victory. Fair took on the job of guarding the Demon Deacons’ star guard Jewel Spear, holding her to just nine points on 3-for-13 shooting.
SU lost its first ranked matchup of the season against then-No. 6 NC State before embarking on a three-game win streak against Pittsburgh, Clemson and Boston College.
It was unknown when exactly the Orange decided to fully convert to a man-to-man defense but, suddenly, the zone no longer had a place on the team. Syracuse started communicating and playing the brand of basketball that Legette-Jack had always wanted.
Up top, Fair’s job was to force opponents left or right. When the primary ball-handler decided to dribble one way, Syracuse’s defense changed, shifting to force the ball into the corners and baseline. Unlike many defenses that encourage a middle-drive, the Orange attempted to trap in the corners to force an errant pass or five-second call.
On paper, and during occasional stretches throughout SU’s games, the scheme worked before an overflow in talent and injuries to Syracuse’s starters rocked the Orange. Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles tore the defense apart with her passing and Duke’s Shayeann Day-Wilson had a near-perfect shooting night to deliver two more ranked losses.
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“We did a better job against Notre Dame but we’re not nearly where I think we should be,” Legette-Jack said after the second loss to the Fighting Irish.
Syracuse’s bigs handled then-No.13 Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley in the early going, standing with their arms straight up, not fouling. But ultimately, it was a lapse in concentration, resulting in too many middle drives and dump downs to Kitley, that led to another loss. The mantra of trapping the opposition near the corners and baseline was briefly forgotten.
The last couple of contests have been a roller-coaster of emotions for the Orange. First, a win over then-No. 14 North Carolina gave Syracuse its first ranked victory in over a calendar year. Yet, two games later, it trailed through all four quarters and had little to celebrate after receiving its 11th loss of the season to Florida State.
Even in SU’s win over Miami, it was the offense that shown through, as five Syracuse players finished in double digits for the first time in a month. The same gaping holes still presented itself — players were slow to get back in transition and middle drives were still prevalent.
“If we can get better now until the end of the season, if we can control how high a moment we get on defense and lock in here, we could be playing for a long time,” Legette-Jack said.
Currently sitting as a part of the ‘Last Four In’ according to ESPN’s Bracketology, Syracuse must win its final game against the Panthers to have any chance of playing in March. In the early postseason, defensive discipline will be essential if the Orange want to make a run in the upcoming ACC Tournament.
“It’s clear that we can score the basketball. But I think we can score the ball a lot more once we can get our defense set and really just trust,” Legette-Jack said.
