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Yale needed to keep Syracuse at bay. The Orange had clawed back from a double-digit halftime deficit and were on the cusp of taking their first lead of the afternoon. So, the Bulldogs leaned on top scorer Jenna Clark with just over five minutes remaining.
Clark worked from the top of the key before kicking it out to Mackenzie Egger, who curled inside toward the middle of the lane. Egger already had three made shots to her name on the game before she lifted a shot when she entered the paint.
But SU’s Dariauna Lewis got her right hand on the ball, swatting it behind the 3-point line. Elles van der Maas got the rebound and passed it out to a teammate. But before any shot was taken, the shot clock expired and Lewis celebrated emphatically at the foul line.
On the Orange’s next possession, Dyaisha Fair nailed her third 3-pointer of the day to give SU a 56-54 lead, its first lead since leading 3-2. Lewis’ defensive presence, along with a full-court press defense, propelled Syracuse (6-2, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) to its 60-58 comeback win over Yale (4-5, 0-0 Ivy). After the Bulldogs made half of their shots in the first half, the Orange’s press tightened up and allowed only eight shots from the field in the second.
Syracuse head coach Felisha Legette-Jack kept the team in its traditional 2-3 zone throughout the first half despite the high volume of shots. The zone garnered some success early on as SU got four steals and forced nine Yale turnovers.
Two minutes into the second quarter, Fair turned the ball over and quickly gave Clark a chance to drive down the right side of the court. Once she moved past the 3-point line, Clark looked to make a bounce pass to teammate Nyla McGill. But Fair quickly pounced and easily got the steal.
Still, the Bulldogs ended the first quarter on an 8-0 run while the Orange went over 10 minutes without a made bucket from the field between the two opening quarters.
Legette-Jack said she wanted to stick with the 2-3 zone because the Orange wanted the “wrong people to shoot the ball” on the Bulldogs.
There was just one problem for the Legette-Jack and Syracuse: Yale kept making shots.
Midway through the second quarter, Clark read the SU defense and noticed that the left corner was wide open. The only player there was Kiley Capstraw, who has the highest 3-point percentage on the Bulldogs’ roster. With all the open space, Capstraw canned the left corner jumper to make the score 26-13.
“Usually they’re going to stop making them, but they kept making them,” Legette-Jack said of Yale’s shooters. “And I’m like, ‘Oh crap, we got to change that up.”
Legette-Jack said that sometimes as a coach, she will be stubborn and remain resolute in keeping her defense. But as she watched the game go along and listened to the staff around her, she realized a change was necessary.
The Orange started playing in their full-court press with 5:37 left in the third quarter, right out of a long timeout. On Yale’s first possession against the full-court press, the cracks started to show.
Capstraw, who had all that space in the first half, was now facing heavy contact as she curled down to the free-throw line. Her contested floater hit the rim and the ball was collected by SU’s Kyra Wood. Alaina Rice and Fair then started to speed up the pace.
“We needed the energy,” Legette-Jack said.
As part of the press, three SU players surrounded the Yale ball handler at all times as they came up the court. With just under 90 seconds left in the third, the Bulldogs were disoriented. Still, McGill got around the Syracuse defense and she had to throw up a hasty shot. Lewis was there to box two Bulldogs to get one of her six rebounds in the afternoon.
Lewis’ aggressive play down the stretch forced Yale to continue to throw up awkward looks and unbalanced shots. The Bulldogs ended up only scoring 21 points for the entire second half. But when Lewis gave the Orange a 60-58 lead off of a slick pass from Fair, there was still over a minute remaining in the game.
With 36 seconds left, Yale got the ball off an errant pass from Fair. Clark moved to the left wing, looking to get the ball through to Klara Astrom. Once Astrom got the ball, she faced heavy contact from Lewis, who stayed strong and drew no foul. Lewis stayed resolute under the hoop on Yale’s next two attempts — misses from Astrom and Egger. Lewis had remained a presence under the hoop. Even in the face of injuries.
Even as Lewis laid down in pain at the center of the court, holding her right hand. Even after exiting the game in the third quarter with an undisclosed injury, Lewis was healthy enough to come back out and play, consistently getting rebounds and making stops.
“She can play and she’s going to keep getting better,” Legette-Jack said of Lewis. “…the best is yet to come (for her).”
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