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The fourth quarter as of late hasn’t been Syracuse’s strong suit. It collapsed in the fourth quarter against then-No. 7 Notre Dame and blew a nine-point fourth-quarter lead to then-No. 6 NC State. And against Georgia Tech, it didn’t go as planned, again.

Syracuse (13-6, 4-4 Atlantic Coast) had remained close with Georgia Tech for the first several minutes off the fourth quarter — trailing 54-53 at one point — but buckets by Bianca Jackson, Avyonce Carter and Tonie Morgan in a 15-3 Georgia Tech run in the game’s final minutes the Yellow Jackets (10-9, 1-7 ACC) to come away with a 69-57 win in their first conference victory of the season.

For the first few minutes, no one other than Kyra Wood could score as she notched the first six points for the Orange. Georgia Woolley traveled at the top of the key, Teisha Hyman missed a floater and bricked a 3 and Dariauna Lewis’ jumper went in and out. But down low, Wood scored her first three buckets from inside the paint.

On one play, Hyman penetrated down the lane, drawing two defenders. It left Wood wide open in the paint for the easy two. In transition, Woolley received the ball on the left wing before firing a pass to Wood down low for another layup. Eventually, Dyaisha Fair and fHyman hit baseline jumpers to force GT head coach Nell Fortner to call a timeout as the Orange led 10-6.

The Yellow Jackets ended the first period on a 7-1 run, leveling the score at 13 entering the second. Their spark came from Boston College transfer Cameron Swartz, who came off the bench and notched seven first-quarter points before adding a 3 in the second quarter. Lewis grabbed six rebounds in the first-quarter alone, and would finish with 14. For Syracuse, zero players off the bench scored in the first half. By the game’s end, GT outscored the Orange 39-5 in bench points.

Both teams traded buckets early on in the second quarter. Fair drained a 3 from the left wing, while GT’s Carter responded with another from the right wing. Hyman went coast-to-coast and scored a contested floater off the glass. But play stopped briefly when Fair ran into the shoulder of Kayla Blackshear. It was incidental contact, but temporarily removed Fair from the game.

With Fair sidelined, Syracuse’s three guards were Hyman, Rice and Woolley. At the top of the key, Rice found Lewis down low. Lewis used her size to score the basket in the paint. On the next play, Hyman drove down the left side of the lane, scoring the layup with the foul. It gave Syracuse a 28-22 lead, the largest lead of the game at that point.

Fair returned to the game, scoring a pull-up jumper from the elbow, finishing with 11 points in the first half. The Yellow Jackets would get the final five points of the half to reclaim the lead. Swartz, Georgia Tech’s best 3-point shooter, converted from deep to cut the deficit to one. Then, after Jackson missed from beyond the arc in the corner, Blackshear grabbed the offensive board and forced a shooting foul with 2.5 seconds left. She made both as Georgia Tech led at halftime 31-30. It was the first GT led since being up 4-2 early in the first quarter.

Rice scored the first bench points for Syracuse with seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. Fair drove into the lane, before kicking out to Rice in the corner. Rice, with space, drained the 3 in front of the SU sideline.

Interior passing continued to be a strength throughout the evening for Syracuse. In the third quarter, Fair drove into the lane before throwing a one-handed pass to Lewis down low. Lewis missed the layup, but drew the foul. Then, on a previous play in the same period, Rice had the ball on the right wing. She passed it cross-court down-low to Lewis, whose layup rolled on the rim and out, but a foul was called.

Both sides had minimal separation midway through the third quarter with Syracuse leading 40-36. Fair found Hyman for a fast-break bucket, while Blackshear made a jumper for the Yellow Jackets. Out of the first third-quarter media timeout, GT went on a quick 6-0 run. Swartz made a turnaround jumper while Morgan added two layups to give GT a 42-40 lead. By the end of the third period, the Orange trailed 48-47 after Fair made a pair from the free-throw line. In the first three periods, Georgia Tech used runs of 7-1, 9-2 and 14-7 to end each quarter.

After being fouled from the 3-point line, Swartz made three free throws to give the Yellow Jackets a 54-51 lead. Then, after a chaotic scramble on SU’s offensive end, Fair found Lewis for a baseline jumper to cut it to a one-point lead, but Swartz countered with a layup. The Orange trailed 56-53 at the under-5 media timeout.

Jackson and Carter added two more buckets, while Hyman made a turn-around second-chance bucket. But Syracuse struggled to score in the game’s final minutes and it choked again the rest of the way, losing to a GT team that had been winless in its first seven conference games.

Published on January 19, 2023 at 9:26 pm

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