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With the game tied at 21 apiece, Dyaisha Fair took the ball upcourt. 

She crossed over to her right, stepped back and nailed a midrange shot over Kent State’s Jenna Batsch. That capped off a six-point scoring run for the guard. She was getting consistent open looks from inside the arc, giving the Orange the lead for the first time since the game’s opening basket. 

Head coach Felisha Legette-Jack tweeted prior to Selection Sunday that any kind of postseason opportunity would help her team grow. That growth was clearly exhibited tonight as Syracuse (19-12, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) defeated Kent State (21-11, 12-6 Mid-American Conference) 84-56 in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. After a slow start in the first quarter, Syracuse opened the game up after Fair dropped 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting. With SU’s victory, Legette-Jack became the first SU women’s basketball coach to win their first postseason game.

The Golden Flashes entered this evening’s matchup fresh off a season in which they led the MAC in 3-point percentage with 35%, and shot the eighth-most 3s in all of the NCAA with 741. Early in the first quarter, Casey Santoro dribbled around the perimeter looking for a scoring opportunity. As she drove toward the paint, she was met by Dariauna Lewis, but found Katie Shumate for a wide-open 3. 

Syracuse adjusted well to Kent State’s perimeter shooting. At one point in the first half, the Golden Flashes were 3-of-11 from range. But, at times, the Orange were too concerned about the 3-ball which led to Kent State clearing up space inside the arc.

Nearly one minute into the second quarter, Syracuse was selling out on its perimeter defense, forming a barrier around Kent State’s deep shooters. Schumate weaved around looking for a teammate, but she took what the defense gave her and hit a pull-up jumper from the paint, giving Kent State an 18-15 lead. 

With Syracuse down five, Teisha Hyman held the ball on the perimeter, looking to distribute. Lewis was down in the paint boxing out as Hyman found the forward, who knocked down a turnaround jumper to close out the first quarter. 

Lewis had a big impact on the game from the get-go. She finished the first half with 10 points, and led the Orange on the glass with eight rebounds. Lewis’ dominance from inside led to the guard tandem Fair and Georgia Woolley having more shooting space from both the perimeter and midrange.

In the opening quarter, Fair was a no-show. She didn’t make any field-goal attempts, and only scored one point off a trip to the free-throw line. 

But Fair quickly got past her first-quarter struggles as she took the game over in the second. The guard finished the half with 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting. She made a lot of her buckets coming off Kent State turnovers, which were plentiful near the end of the second quarter.

“I thought Dyaisha looked a certain way before the game,” Legette-Jack said. “She was getting ready to do what she do and I just didn’t think anybody on the court could stop her.”

Lindsey Thall turned a pass over to Asia Strong, who found Fair accelerating past the Golden Flash’s defense. Fair finished with a right-handed lay-in, which gave Syracuse a 27-26 lead with 3:20 left in the second quarter. 

The turnover struggles continued for Kent State down the stretch in the first half. Fair got a steal off of Clare Kelly after she mishandled the ball coming up the court. Kelly then fouled Fair, which was ruled as just a personal foul despite Fair having a wide-open lane to the basket. 

On the ensuing possession, Fair made sure to make the most out of the no-call. She received the inbound pass from Hyman and dribbled up to the 3-point line. Fair took a step inside, crossed over to her right and drilled a step-back 3 to give SU a 38-29 lead. 

Right after, Strong intercepted another errant pass from Thall, leading to a fastbreak chance for the Orange. Woolley finished on the layup in transition, as part of her eight first-half points. 

Strong then intercepted another errant pass from Thall, leading to a fastbreak chance. Woolley received the outlet pass, dribbled toward the right side of the basket, euro-stepped to evade Shumate and Santoro and finished the layup in transition. Woolley ended the first half with eight points, and totaled 13 on the night.

Strong was the main catalyst for turning the ball over in favor of the Orange. She had four steals in the first half alone, all of those takeaways leading to points on the other end. With her quick instincts, Strong constantly created turnovers by anticipating ball movement both around the 3-point line and on entry passes inside.

SU wasted no time adding to its lead in the second half. Woolley held the ball in the left corner behind the 3-point line as Lewis was gaining position over Shumate in the paint. Woolley dished it over to the forward, and she turned around to face the basket, with Shumate’s arms outstretched in the air.

Lewis stepped to her left, then picked up her dribble and spun to her right, sending Shumate in the opposite direction and finishing the wide-open layup. Lewis closed out the first-round matchup with 17 points and 12 rebounds, four of which were offensive, gaining her 12th double double.

“I was just locked in,” Lewis said. “I knew I couldn’t settle for jump shots, so I was like ‘okay, let’s do some post moves today.’”

With 6:21 left in the third, Hyman snagged a rebound off a missed 3 from Santoro. She fed Fair, who sprinted upcourt and drove inside looking for a layup. The Golden Flashes got back quickly in time to halt Fair from taking a shot, but Fair passed to a wide-open Woolley in the left corner and she knocked down the 3. 

Just half a minute later, Fair took the ball herself off the inbound, combo dribbled to find space and made another 3-pointer from the top of the key. The lead increased to 18 for the Orange, as the Golden Flashes had no answer for Fair’s play. 

“I just had to revert back to who I was before coming here,” Fair said. “Just seeing the name and where they came from is where I came from, something clicked.”

The Golden Flashes moved the ball around with pace and found Santoro for 3, who missed. Shumate was there to grab the rebound and converted on a putback layup.

Kent State had no other choice but to live and die by the 3 in the game’s final frame. Thall shot a 3-pointer near the ‘A’ in the JMA on-court logo, and clanked the shot off the left side of the rim as the ball trickled out of play. 

The Golden Flashes continued to chuck up 3-pointer after 3-pointer during the fourth quarter, but went 1-for-9 from deep and only shot 25.9% on the night from beyond the arc.

As Kennedi Perkins waited at the scorer’s table, Fair was subbed out with 5:37 left in the fourth. Fair had played every second of the game up until that point, and was showered with a standing ovation from the Syracuse crowd.

Published on March 15, 2023 at 9:08 pm

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews