Despite a career-high 16 points from Kiara Lewis, the No. 13/14 Syracuse women’s basketball team (15-4, 4-2 ACC) was unable to overcome an 11-point deficit against No. 23 Miami (17-4, 5-1 ACC) in an 84-71 loss Wednesday night at the Carrier Dome.
Lewis delivered one of the best performances of her career shooting 7-for-13 while also contributing four rebounds and two assists. Tiana Mangakahia added 12 points and eight assists as she moved into sixth all-time at Syracuse in career assists with 454.
Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi and Digna Strautmane had eight and seven points, respectively, while Marie-Paule Foppossi notched a career-high five points. Foppossi was one of five Orange players to wrangle in five rebounds including Mangakahia, Gabrielle Cooper, Kadiatou Sissoko and Emily Engstler.
“We have to evaluate what’s going,” head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “We just played a ranked team and we had one loss to a non-ranked team on the road. These are the moments that I know we’re good. Everyone is like ‘what’s wrong?’ It’s fantastic. 11 years ago, no one was saying ‘what’s wrong’ when we were 7-12. This is fantastic.”
The Orange led the Hurricanes in several statistical categories including rebounds (40), points in the paint (38), points off turnovers (22), second-chance points (16) and bench points (39) but were unable to overcome Miami’s 25-of-51 (49 percent) shooting from the field that included a 9-of-15 (60 percent) performance from beyond the arc.
Miami opened the game making its first six attempts from the field but the Orange stayed within striking distance thanks to two early Hurricane turnovers that led to back-to-back three-pointers from Cooper. Strautmane tied the game, 10-10, with a jumper before Miami went on a 6-0 run putting themselves ahead 16-10. Down 21-16, the Orange used a 9-1 run to end the first quarter ahead 25-22.
The Hurricanes fired off a quick 11-2 run to open the second quarter, led by seven points from Mykea Gray. Syracuse forced three Miami turnovers in the next two and a half minutes, stringing together three-straight baskets that tied the game at 33. Miami didn’t stay quiet for long coming back with a 12-2 run for its largest lead of the first half, 45-35.
Down 50-39 in the third quarter, Lewis came up big with the Orange’s next six points of the game but a three-point play for the Hurricanes kept them ahead by 10, 53-43. ‘Cuse went on an 13-3 run to end the quarter trailing 64-56.
With three minutes left in the fourth quarter, a three-pointer from Strautmane pulled the Orange within striking distance, down 70-67. Miami came up big, closing out the game on a 14-4 run that held the Orange to 0-of-5 from the field in the final four minutes of the game. During that stretch, Miami took advantage of its chances at the free throw line banking in 9-of-10 shots, leading the team to its third top-25 victory of the season.
The Orange return to the road Jan. 27 for a 1 p.m. matchup against Duke. The game will be broadcast on Regional Sports Networks (RSN). Following Sunday’s road game at Duke, the Orange return home Wednesday, Jan. 31 to host Virginia at 7 p.m. Tickets are available online.
