No. 19 Syracuse increased its win streak to five games following a 92-66 victory over Old Dominion in Day 1 of the Florida Sunshine Classic.
After nine days off, the 19th-ranked Syracuse women’s basketball team took the floor in the Florida Sunshine Classic and easily disposed of Old Dominion 92-66. The Orange, who had won four straight by an average of 34.5 points, showed little rust in this one. Four players finished in double figures. This includes Alexis Peterson, who led all scorers with 27 points. She also tallied 10 assists.
Briana Day chipped in a double-double of her own with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting and 11 rebounds. Syracuse will have a ton of success this season if it’s getting this type of production from the two best players on the team. The Orange were pretty dominant on the offensive end shooting 47.5 percent from the field, while knocking down 12 threes. This marks the fourth time this season they’ve hit 12 or more from beyond the arc. They’ll win a ton of games with this type of range.
But we know this team prides itself on playing stout defense. And though you’re never going to be happy about allowing a team to score 25 or more points in two separate quarters (and shooting 40 percent from the field), there is some solace in forcing 31 turnovers. Opponents are now averaging 25.5 turnovers per game against Coach Q’s team. This is a winning formula. It’s one that helped them get to the national title game last year.
Syracuse responded to early season adversity. After starting the season 3-0, SU dropped a game
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down in Philly to an inferior Drexel team. Players stormed the court after the win. Yup. After a regular season win in November. This speaks how far Coach Q has brought this program along. But then the Orange lost the final two games of the Golf Coast tournament to ranked teams. You can attribute it to fatigue, having played three days in a row. But there was no question that Syracuse needed to look itself in the mirror and realize the competition wasn’t going to just acquiesce to SU’s star power and cachet.
The response has been strong and now everything seems to be clicking ahead of conference play set to begin next week in Louisville. But the Orange can’t look past Texas A&M because then they’d run the risk of squandering an opportunity to take some serious momentum into the new year.
