The Syracuse Orange faced just their second loss of the season to the Duke Blue Devils in their ACC home opener. Captain Dominique Darius led the team with 18 points and 3 rebounds, but the selfless leader still felt she didn’t do enough.
“We’re going to miss shots, we’re going to miss layups but the things we can control, we gotta really emphasize so honestly it’s just on me as a captain … I gotta hold people accountable and I gotta hold myself accountable.”
Fellow captain Laila Phelia echoed her teammates message, emphasizing Darius’ performance as an example to the team.
“Just seeing Dom go out there and being aggressive and stuff..” Phelia said she would tell her teammates, “Okay you see Dom doing it, we all need to be on the same page.”
Coach Jack said, “One thing I love about my captains is that they own their stuff.. they hold themselves responsible and they’re going to make changes.”
An issue that star freshman Uche Izoje has dealt with in her early career has been foul trouble and the story line continued today. Izoje committed two early fouls and forced the hand of Coach Jack to bench her for valuable minutes. She later fouled out with 6:54 to play.
“I’d like to see her play 34 minutes too,” Coach Jack said about Izoje’s minutes today. “I thought we adjusted to the way things were being called and then the adjustment had to be again… we just gotta figure out how the calls are going to be called to keep her on the floor.”
“She is one of the best players in the conference, arguably in the country but no one’s never going to know… If she’s playing 34 minutes, we’re a different team. If she’s playing 18 minutes, we’re a different team.”
And her absence was felt after the first quarter. The Orange gave up a 12-5 lead in the first finishing the quarter tied at 14-14. Duke continued its run outscoring the Orange 19-8 in the second quarter, a deficit Syracuse could not overcome.
As a team, though, Darius said they need to put together a full 40 minutes.
“It’s really the second quarter, I feel like that’s where we lost it.” Darius said. “It’s really a game of possessions. Every possession we gotta value it better … making sure we’re dialed in every possession.”
As for final captain Sophie Burrows who has seen highs and lows of scoring in her junior year, Coach Jack said she knows what she needs to do and bring to the team.
“She’s a kid that can play both sides of the ball. We want both sides to be played… at the end of the day, we want the ball to go in the hole.”
Burrows acknowledged she needed to do better after her lopsided performance. Darius had encouraging words for Burrows after she was held to just 2 points offensively, 5 steals and 6 rebounds.
“The losses suck but these are the type of losses that really build character and resilience so it’s really going to come down to how we respond.”