Women's Basketball

In final game at Carrier Dome, seniors carry No. 20 Syracuse to 85-64 win over Wake Forest

Connor Bahng | Staff Photographer

Alexis Peterson led the way with 25 points for the Orange.

Until the horn sounded at the end of the first half, every one of Syracuse’s points had come from a familiar face. Gabby Cooper’s layup at the buzzer gave SU a 42-28 lead at the break, but until that point it had been Syracuse’s seniors leading the way.

Four seniors, 40 points.

Four-hundred-fifty-eight collective starts over parts of five seasons culminated on Thursday night. Four players together since the 2013-14 season scored 68 of Syracuse’s 85 points, 85 percent of SU’s offense. On senior night, No. 20 Syracuse’s (19-9, 10-5 Atlantic Coast) seniors led SU to an 85-63 victory over Wake Forest (15-13, 5-9) inside the Carrier Dome. WFU struggled to break the SU press with consistency as the Orange’s veterans commanded the game from tipoff in their final time on the Carrier Dome floor.

“It was a long time coming,” said Sykes, who has started in 132 career games. “It’s bittersweet.”

With the loss, the unranked Demon Deacons have lost six of its last eight. SU, meanwhile, may now be playing its best basketball of the season. And its last two games, Thursday night’s blowout over WFU and Sunday night’s near-upset of Notre Dame, have proved that.



Should the Orange beat Pittsburgh on Sunday, a team it blew out by 28 points earlier this month, it will have won six of its last eight regular-season games. Four of the games have come against Top 25 opponents. In its latest outing Thursday night, Syracuse got out to leads of nine after 10 minutes, 14 at the half, 17 after three quarters and 22 at the end.

Early, Briana Day, the 6-foot-4 center, needed another rebound and basket to get her eight double-double of the season, so she skied for a long rebound. She landed, gathered herself and rose up to lay up the ball for two. She reached a double-double with four minutes left — in the second quarter. She finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds, helping SU command the glass and score 21 second-chance points.

Alexis Peterson, Syracuse’s do-it-all point guard, finished with 25 points shooting an efficient 11-of-22 overall. The ACC Player of the Year candidate and conference’s leading scorer put on a clinic, with no play more evident of that than a second-quarter drove. She handled a crossover dribble to beat her defender and, with her left hand, sailed the ball over a help defender’s arms for two points. Her full-court traps helped lead to 25 WFU turnovers.

“Peterson doesn’t have to do it alone,” Wake Forest head coach Jennifer Hoover said. “And she knows that.”

Brittney Sykes, who ranks second in scoring in the ACC behind only Peterson, committed an uncharacteristic seven turnovers. She scored just 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting, but dished out five assists and narrowly missed a double-double with nine rebounds.

In a brief first-quarter stretch, Sykes flashed the skillset that has her in contention for All-ACC First Team. She had an and-1 driving across the paint form left-to-right. A few possessions later, she took a dribble toward the basket, then screeched to a halt and hit a 15-foot jumper to enliven more than 1,000 fans in attendance.

“We’ve watched this Dome go from maybe 150 friends, 70 of those being staff members, to 11,000,” senior guard Alexis Peterson said, referring to SU’s record crowd Sunday night. “It’s something I’ll be able to tell my kids in 20 years, that I was part of one of the greatest Syracuse teams in my four years.”

And Slim, the senior forward who averages only 4.7 points per game, scored five points in the first quarter alone. She hit a 3-pointer, grabbed six rebounds and finished with eight points, her highest total since Jan. 8, an 11 game span.

After the buzzer sounded, the four seniors walked off the court to a standing ovation. Peterson walked along the baseline, hugging and high-fiving the fans that have seen her develop from a fledging freshman with just one start on her resume to one of the country’s best players. Sykes, who’s recovered from two knee injuries that sidelined her for a season, did similarly on the near sideline.

In their final games at the Carrier Dome, Syracuse’s seniors delivered.

“They made our program better,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “But we know we’re not done yet.”





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