UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Syracuse women’s basketball head coach Felisha Legette-Jack slumped into her chair with her head resting in her right hand during the third quarter of her team’s 81-55 loss to No. 6 Michigan.
Syracuse center Uche Izoje had just turned the ball over, marking the eighteenth giveaway of the game for the Orange. Michigan promptly took the ball in transition to score a wide-open basket.
The five second sequence was a complete encapsulation of the contest. Syracuse was outworked, outhustled and outmatched.
“I apologize to Michigan,” Jack said. “I don’t think that we’ve given them a good example of what competition looks like.”
The Wolverine defense suffocated Syracuse all afternoon. Traps were set all over the floor as the Orange carried the ball forward. No matter who was handling the rock, it felt like a double team was ready to swarm them.
“We (tell) our players, ‘don’t go to the corner,'” Jack said. “And they kept going to the corners… (It was) almost like I was getting punked out there myself.”
Michigan fought for every wooden panel on the court. For all 40 minutes, every square inch of Mohegan Sun Arena was theirs.
Michigan refers to itself as the hardest working team in the nation. On Sunday, they lived up that monicker. The Wolverines certainly outworked Syracuse. They dominated the glass, outrebounding the Orange 46-32.
“Our guards didn’t come to the boards,” Jack said. “That’s on them. We got boxed out and we stayed boxed out. That’s not who we are and that’s not what I coach.”
Jack’s squad failed to match the offensive firepower and depth of the Wolverines. Michigan guard Te’Yala Delfosse scored a game-high 21 points off the bench and shot 8-for-11 from the field. The reserves combined for 42 points.
“I think that’s what makes our team such a great team,” Michigan head coach Kim Barnes Arico said.
Coming into the game, Syracuse’s defense was impassable. The Orange built a wall around the basket with their smothering defense, holding opponents to just 49 points per game. Michigan’s combination of shot-making and ball movement knocked it down.
The Orange offense was the exact opposite. It was stagnant and stale. When they found open shots, very few of them fell.
Syracuse guard Sophie Burrows has been ice-cold shooting the ball through the first month of the season. That trend continued on Sunday, when she made just one of her ten field goal attempts and missed all seven of her three-point tries. Jack was blunt about her captain’s lack of production.
“She’s got to figure it out or I’ve got to sub her out,” Jack said. “I love her, but she’s got to get to the basket and get to the free throw line. She’s way better than she’s playing right now.”
After winning its first five contests of the season, the 26-point loss was a reality check for Syracuse. The Orange will need to improve if they want to be serious players on the national stage.
“I just thought that we got punked today,” Jack said. “We’ll continue to get better for sure.”