Hot-Shooting Orange Too Much for Virginia in 90-72 Loss at Syracuse
In most games, scoring 72 points is enough for the Cavaliers to earn a victory. However, Dyaisha Fair and the Syracuse Orange had other ideas. Fair scored 36 points, the Orange made 12 threes as a team, and Syracuse put up a staggering 90 points in an impressive 90-72 victory over the Virginia women's basketball team on Thursday night at the JMA Wireless Dome.
After sitting out against in UVA's last game against her former school Notre Dame while serving a one-game suspension, Sam Brunelle wasted no time making a mark in her return, scoring four early points for the Cavaliers. Meanwhile, Alaina Rice had five points to pace Syracuse.
Syracuse held a 9-6 lead halfway through the quarter, until London Clarkson made three layups, giving the Cavaliers a 12-10 lead. Clarkson also had three offensive rebounds in the first quarter.
The two teams went back and forth in the remaining minutes of the first quarter, highlighted by back-to-back threes from Taylor Valladay for UVA and Alaina Rice for Syracuse. After the first ten minutes, Syracuse led 22-17.
In the second quarter, five quick points from the Orange gave Syracuse a 27-19 lead. Coming off of a game where she scored her 1,000th point, Camryn Taylor put together a personal 5-0 run, and Alexia Smith added a layup to cap a 7-0 team run, which pulled the Cavaliers within one point.
A few minutes later, Sam Brunelle and McKenna Dale made consecutive three pointers to give UVA a 32-29 lead. However, Syracuse responded to the Cavalier scoring run and retook the lead shortly after with the help of Dyaisha Fair’s 12 first-half points. At the end of the second quarter, McKenna Dale made her second three-pointer, helping bring her team within two points. UVA trailed 41-39 headed into the locker room at halftime.
London Clarkson had 10 points and four rebounds in the first half, and Camryn Taylor had seven points and six rebounds. Yonta Vaughn had five first half assists and no turnovers, a very impressive stat for a point guard.
In the third quarter, Syracuse jumped out to a 49-42 lead, forcing Coach Mox to call a timeout. Dyaisha Fair added to her point tally for Syracuse with a layup after the timeout, up to 17 points on the night.
The Hoos started 2/7 from the field with three turnovers, while Syracuse was 5/10 from the field in the early minutes of the third quarter. Camryn Taylor and Sam Brunelle had four and three points, respectively, as the lone offensive contributors for the Cavaliers. UVA managed to pull within three points several different times at the end of the third quarter, but could not get any closer than that. Syracuse went on a 4-0 run to close out the third quarter with a 65-58 lead. The Cavaliers would have to fight their way back into the game.
Camryn Taylor had a big second half with 13 points, scoring all of Virginia’s early fourth quarter points. However, Dyaisha Fair became simply unstoppable for Syracuse. She had 17 fourth quarter points alone, giving her 36 total points in the game. Fair was 11/16 from the field and 8/11 from three. Shooting 73% from deep and making eight threes is something that no defense can deal with and no offense can overcome. Fair outscored the entire Cavalier team in the fourth quarter, helping Syracuse pull away.
Alaina Rice had 18 points, seven assists, and five rebounds and Georgia Wooley had 17 points and four assists, teaming up with Fair to score 71 of Syracuse’s 90 points.
Camryn Taylor scored 20 points and added seven rebounds for UVA, but she also had five turnovers and fouled out of the game midway through the fourth quarter. London Clarkson added 16 points for her team. Virginia shot 28/59 (48%) from the field and 7/13 (54%) from beyond the arc, decent offensive stats, but not enough to get the job done for the hot-shooting Orange.
After losing six of its last seven games, Virginia falls to 14-7 and 3-7 in conference play. Up next, the Cavaliers will take on rival Virginia Tech in the second round of the Commonwealth Clash on Sunday at 6pm at John Paul Jones Arena.
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