The Aussies lead the way
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — As long as Georgia Woolley and Sophie Burrows had anything to say about it, the Syracuse Orange women’s basketball’s season will not end after Sunday’s game against Boston College.
The Orange (11-17, 5-12 ACC) led wire-to-wire in a tiebreaking win 83-65 over Pittsburgh (12-18, 4-13 ACC), but it wasn’t always as comfortable as the final score. Syracuse had a 20-point first half advantage cut down to just four at the beginning of the fourth quarter. From there, Burrows took over the game, and later Woolley added on, as the pair combined for 21 of the Orange’s 29 points in the final quarter. With the win, Syracuse clinched a spot in next week’s ACC Tournament.
“Coach Jack just said to us (in the locker room), we got to get to Monday,” Lexi McNabb said. “We did everything that we could to get to Monday.”
Burrows left the floor with 2:41 to play in the first half, heading to the locker room holding onto her left arm in the middle of a Pitt run. The Panthers climbed from 20 points down to cut the lead to seven in the final minute of the half, but Kyra Wood hit a jumper to end the run, and Syracuse got a stop to close the first half ahead 38-29.
Then, Burrows came back into the game. Nobody was surprised by her return.
“I knew she was gonna come back,” Woolley said. “I’m like ‘come on, Sophie, come on, we don’t sit down for too long.’ That’s Soph, we just know that that’s someone we can rely on, and she bounced back, she hit some great threes, great rebounds, and she really settled us on the floor.”
Pitt kept chipping the lead to six and eight in the third quarter, but the Orange had a response for everything, and when the clock turned to the fourth quarter, that response was Burrows.
Ahead 56-51 with 8:40 to play, Burrows cut into the lane from the right and dropped in an and-1 layup, converting the free throw. Pitt responded with an and-1 of its own, only for Burrows to can a triple. When the Panthers answered with another triple, Burrows drilled a mid-range jumper with a foul, and converted the free throw to put SU up by eight once again.
She scored nine points in just over a minute, and it set Syracuse on a path toward victory.
“Coach Jack had a little bit of a go at me,” Burrows said. “She said to stop playing safe, so that was a bit of a reality check, and I think that’s what I did. I just went out there and played basketball.”
“Make a decision and live with it,” Jack said her advice to Burrows before the fourth quarter was. “It’s desperation time, you gotta go. Open shooters, shoot the ball. I looked her in the eyes, and she had to understand, this is not to anybody but to (her) and she handled it like a woman. She stepped up and she took tough shots.”
Woolley also left the game briefly due to an injury which occurred around the time of Burrows’ takeover. When she came back into the game, she scored nine points of her own to close out the win, including breaking a near three-minute deadlock where neither team scored with a mid-range jumper to push the lead to ten.
It never sunk below that mark the rest of the way.
Burrows scored 12 of her 21 in the final quarter, while Woolley finished with 25 points and a career-high nine assists. Because of that big performance, Sunday will not be Woolley’s final collegiate basketball game.
Syracuse’s first 15 minutes were perhaps the best 15 minutes it played all season. No shot was coming easy for the Panthers, and it seemed like every possession SU could generate a high quality look. Shy Hawkins had nine points, all in the second quarter, including her first career three-pointer.
The Orange have one more regular season game, a matchup with BC on Sunday that will help determine ACC Tournament seeding, but Syracuse will play in Greensboro on Wednesday, and have a chance to survive and advance.