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Following four straight Atlantic Coast Conference losses, three of which came against ranked opponents, Syracuse couldn’t rebound against Georgia Tech. The Orange trailed the entire game, even taking a 1-0 deficit before the opening tip-off as the Yellow Jackets were awarded an administrative technical foul. 

For the rest of the game, Syracuse clawed back on GT’s lead, finding its most success in the third quarter with 18 points while holding the Yellow Jackets to just 13. But given both teams’ offensive struggles, the Yellow Jackets emerged with the upper hand, repeatedly scoring in the paint through their bigs. 

Syracuse was also unable to fix its recent shooting drought, going 4-for-20 from deep. Teisha Hyman led SU with 18 points, followed closely by Chrislyn Carr and Alaysia Styles’ 12 points. But Hyman fouled out by the end of the night as the Orange committed 20 personal fouls, their second-most in a single game this season. 

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s fifth straight loss:

Lack of defense in the paint 

Recently, the Orange have allowed their opponents to outscore them in the paint, only finding success in stopping Duke inside. The problems result from the Orange’s lack of size in general, with 6-foot-3 Styles as its tallest player. 

“Points in the paint has really hurt us in the past four or five games,” acting head coach Vonn Read said. “Georgia Tech presents some challenges: they’re very strong and they’re playing pretty much four forwards.”

The Yellow Jackets’ forwards took advantage of the Orange’s lack of size right from the tip off, winning it before scoring 12 points in the paint throughout the first quarter and finishing with 32 overall. The Orange started to drop down into the paint defensively, but that opened midrange jumpers for the Yellow Jackets. Digna Strautmane connected on a jumper from just inside the arc before Nerea Hermosa found the basket a few possessions later.

In the second half, Eylia Love found more success inside as the Orange started to heat up offensively. But Hermosa and Lorela Cubaj caused problems for Syracuse’s defense, finishing with 35 points combined.

Foul trouble 

With its defensive issues, the Orange got more aggressive to prevent Georgia Tech’s forwards from continuously breaking their 2-3 zone. But with only six players in its normal rotation, SU kept players like Styles and Hyman in the game. 

In the second quarter, Hyman picked up her third foul as she threw her body into Love, who beat her to the basket. Love made both attempts from the line as Hyman stayed on the floor despite Read saying that he usually takes players out after they reach that fouling mark. At halftime, the Orange had committed 10 personal fouls.  

By the start of the fourth quarter, Hyman and Christianna Carr had four fouls each, forcing Read to go deeper into his bench than normal by bringing in freshman Nyah Wilson and Alaina Rice to pick up the load. Christianna stayed out, but Hyman went back in as the Orange’s offense struggled without their main offensive option on the court. But Hyman wasn’t able to provide enough of a spark for SU, which finished with less than 60 total points. 

Offensive blunders

Georgia Tech entered the game as the best defensive team in the nation, allowing 46.3 points per game from its opponents. Knowing this, Read said that the Orange wanted to maintain their regular offensive system of the five-out, trying to push the pace against the Yellow Jackets.

“We want to try and push the tempo and play our style of play,” Read said. “They do make it tough because they’re good defensively and they shrink the game offensively.”

Instead of relying on their previous strategy from early in the year of driving and kicking out to 3-point shooters, the Orange tried to score early in the shot clock. Those strings of passes, which eventually found open shooters, were nonexistent and Syracuse tried to work inside with its speed through Chrislyn and Najé Murray.

Only Chrislyn was able to find some success, scoring eight points in the first half. Murray went inside once at the beginning of the first quarter to try and get the Orange their first bucket of the game, but she was swatted away by Cubaj and didn’t try to go in on her own again. 

When SU did shoot from deep, it didn’t find much success. The Orange shot 11 times from deep in the first half, with their only makes coming from Styles, who went 2-for-3 from beyond the arc. Murray, who had shot 15% from 3-point range in the last three games, went 0-for-3.

Digna Strautmane returns

Strautmane made her return to central New York after leaving Syracuse during the offseason. In the first half, Strautmane was relatively quiet, only scoring twice as Hermosa and Cubaj took control of most of the offense. 

At the start of the second half, Murray tried to drive in again despite getting blocked by Cubaj in the first half. Like her teammate, Strautmane got her hand on the ball, halting another attempt from the Orange to cut into the Yellow Jackets’ double-digit lead. Strautmane found Hermosa inside for a layup a few plays later, adding even more of a cushion to Georgia Tech’s advantage. 

In the fourth quarter, Strautmane mimicked her earlier play on Murray, blocking Rice’s layup attempt into the hands of Hyman. Hyman was able to score off a wide-open 3-pointer from the left corner, but on the Yellow Jackets’ ensuing possession, Strautmane found the bottom of the net from the same spot. She finished with nine points and 10 rebounds.

Full court press

Read said that, because of its small rotation, Syracuse has started to become more selective about when it implements its biggest defensive weapon — the full court press. This system was successful in the Orange’s December nonconference slate, but in order to preserve the legs of his players, Read hasn’t resorted to it as much recently.

“We would like to press for 40 minutes and we would like to continue to press, but if they’re tired, I try to get them back into our zone,” Read said. 

SU brought the press out sparingly in the first half, but at the start of the second half the Orange went back to the system. At the anchor of the press, Hyman was able to force a steal midway through the third quarter and go to the basket for an easy layup. Styles stole the ball as the Yellow Jackets tried to push the pace past the press on their ensuing possession, but Hyman missed from deep. 

As the Orange cut down on the Yellow Jackets lead in the fourth quarter, they brought out the press again. But even with players like Chrislyn diving to the floor to try and stop the opposition from getting past half court, Georgia Tech was able to do so on every possession. The press created some confusion with a lot of traps, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Yellow Jackets’ growing lead.

Published on January 20, 2022 at 8:24 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu