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Just a couple minutes into the second quarter, Alaina Rice ran crosscourt along the baseline before settling in the left wing. Teisha Hyman had the ball at the top of the key with a Duke defender on her. Hyman penetrated into the lane, forcing Rice’s defender to bite and subsequently leaving Rice open for a 3-pointer that she swished.

Rice’s make from range gave Syracuse (13-7, 4-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) a 22-15 lead against the No. 13 Blue Devils (17-2, 7-1 ACC) in an eventual 62-50 loss, though the Orange hung around for the bulk of the game. Rice, along with Saniaa Wilson, served as surprise positives in the defeat, providing production off the bench, which produced just five points against Georgia Tech.

Typically, Syracuse doesn’t go too deep into its bench, playing a rotation of seven to eight players. In Thursday’s loss against Georgia Tech, Syracuse saw minimal production from the bench players, which was a similar theme when SU escaped with a narrow victory at Yale earlier in the season.

Wilson, who played a season-high 20 minutes against the Blue Devils, played under head coach Felisha Legette-Jack at Buffalo. She hadn’t seen double-digit minutes since Syracuse’s Dec. 18 win over Wake Forest where she totaled four points. In the previous five games Wilson’s played in, she saw the court for no more than six minutes. To start the season, however, she enjoyed double-digit minutes in each of her first four games for the Orange.

Though Wilson didn’t score too much on Sunday — just six points — she played meaningful minutes to keep the Orange in the game. Rice did the same, tallying a team-high nine first-half points and finishing with 15. It marked her fourth game with double-digit points.

On one of her only scoring possessions, Wilson was able to showcase her poise, control and footwork around the basket. Sizing up her defender in the paint, she backed down before turning and banking a hook shot off the glass for a much-needed two points in the Orange’s comeback attempt. That bucket shortened the deficit to four and Syracuse ended up getting it to as low as two before Duke managed to pull away in the game’s final minutes.

Wilson was also effective in securing rebounds and corralled three offensive ones that provided second-chance opportunities, an area that has been SU’s strong suit.

Besides hitting jumpers, Rice also found success by driving into the lane and absorbing contact. Even though she entered the paint as one of the smaller players with bigger defenders hovering over her, Rice still used her strength to get shots up. In the first half, Rice received a pass down low. She was mismatched, but she used her strength to get enough space to get a shot up and get a hard-fought two points.

In the fourth quarter, Dyaisha Fair found Rice on the right wing. Rather than settling for a contested 3, Rice dribbled into the lane. Electing for the higher-percentage look, Rice cashed in from close range. Then, on another possession, she dribbled down to the left baseline and made the midrange jumper. Legette-Jack then called a timeout as the Blue Devil lead was shortened to five, giving Syracuse some momentum for the final minutes.

Rice’s 15 points, on 6-for-10 shooting from the field, led Syracuse in scoring on Sunday. Usually, Fair is the primary scoring option, but she only finished with 12 points. It was a low-scoring affair for both teams as Duke entered as the second-best team nationally in opponents’ points per game, per Her Hoop Stats. Rice hit a first-quarter jumper that gave the Orange a seven-point lead, their largest of the game.

Defensively, after coming off of a game where she fouled out against Georgia Tech in the loss on Thursday, Rice also added two rebounds, a block and a steal, which contributed to Syracuse’s 18 forced turnovers.

In the second quarter, Duke’s Shayeann Day-Wilson had a fast break with only Rice to beat. As Day-Wilson tried to go up for the layup attempt, Rice stuffed her shot as Hyman began the transition offense, though the Orange didn’t score on the ensuing possession.

Wilson and Rice helped keep the Orange in the game that could’ve gotten out of hand. Syracuse had been down double-digits, but contributions from both players got Syracuse back in the game.

Published on January 22, 2023 at 6:23 pm

Contact Cole: colebambini@gmail.com | @ColeBambini