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SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said what sets her team apart from its competition is the program’s mantra: “Our family versus your team.” Yet, midway into the third quarter Monday, Cornell’s top two scorers had just as many points as Legette-Jack’s team.

Forwards Emily Pape and Summer Parker-Hall had combined for 36 points by the 4:47 mark of the third quarter, as the Big Red held a commanding 50-36 lead. The duo sank open shots and bullied Syracuse’s bigs on the other end. The Orange neared disaster, and couldn’t stop the onslaught.

From there, Pape and Parker-Hall mustered nine points. Syracuse hit its shots. Alyssa Latham and Kyra Wood were active on the glass. And, though Cornell’s frontcourt pair gave it life, SU’s backcourt tandem of Dyaisha Fair and Georgia Woolley silenced the Big Red.

“One thing about a team is if you can’t stop everybody, you stop the other three,” Legette-Jack said. “Two people can’t beat a team.”

Cornell’s Pape and Parker-Hall each set scoring season-highs against the Orange. Pape dropped a game-high 27 points going 13-for-17 from the field. While Parker-Hall shot a less-efficient 5-for-13, her nine-point first quarter set the tone for the Big Red and finished with 18. But Syracuse (9-1, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) weathered the duo’s career games to secure a come-from-behind 78-71 victory over Cornell (5-5, 0-0 Ivy League). SU put an uncharacteristic first two-and-a-half quarters behind it to stall the Cornell duo, outscoring them by 21 the rest of the game. Pape and Parker-Hall’s combined 45 points were curbed by Fair and Woolley’s 47.

Parker-Hall and Pape’s shared explosion came out of nowhere. The two Illinois natives came into Monday averaging fewer than 10 points per game.

The duo’s run was kick-started by Parker-Hall. In the first quarter, she racked up nine points and grabbed four rebounds. The junior forward asserted herself over Latham and Wood, leaping over them for rebounds and finishing through contested layups. She did a lot of her damage from the charity stripe, knocking down 5-of-6 free throws in the opening frame.

Parker-Hall propelled Cornell to a 15-14 lead through 10 minutes. Then, Pape took over. She was the catalyst behind the Big Red’s advantage ballooning to 37-29 at the half.

After a four-point first, Pape dropped 12 in the second quarter going 6-for-7 from the floor. Through Cornell’s crisp ball movement, Pape moved around the perimeter and stepped in to nail open mid-range jumpers. Toward the end of the first half, Pape scored with consistency inside, converting three short-range shots in a row. On one play, she cut into the lane past Woolley and drained a floater off a pass from Vivienne Knee.

In the final 3:48 of the second frame, Pape scored 10 points. To close the first half, Pape corralled an offensive rebound off a miss from Azareya Kilgoe, skying over Latham and Alaina Rice and finishing the put-back layup. The bucket completed a 16-point first half for Pape.

She and Parker-Hall had 27 points at the break, only two less than SU’s team total. They picked up right where they left off in the second half, as the two sparked a 13-5 Cornell run. Pape and Parker-Hall scored the first nine of those points.

Back-to-back buckets at the 7:13 and 6:42 marks of the third quarter equaled the duo’s scoring output to Syracuse’s entire team. First, Pape drilled a 3-pointer over Latham on the left wing, the Big Red’s first of the evening. Then, Pape passed to a cutting Parker-Hall in the paint, who drained the ensuing turnaround jumper. SU had no answer.

Though late in the third quarter, Pape got in foul trouble. Down 54-45, Woolley charged at the rim on a fast break, gearing toward Pape defending the paint. Woolley put her left shoulder into Pape then leaned back and missed, but drew a shooting foul on Pape for her third of the game, prompting Cornell head coach Dayna Smith to sub her out.

“We figured out how to limit (Pape) by going at her,” Fair said.

Pape checked back in to start the fourth quarter. But 27 seconds in, Pape was whistled for a reach-in on Latham, forcing Smith’s hand again.

Through Pape’s foul struggles, Syracuse mounted a comeback. A 13-4 run to end the third quarter put it within five of the Big Red and by the time Pape re-entered the game with 6:52 left, SU was down just four. On her first possession back, Pape missed a jumper and Latham pulled in the board over Parker-Hall.

Legette-Jack praised the performance of Latham and Wood, who were key in cleaning the glass down the stretch. The head coach said Latham was challenged with having to be the main defender under the basket, since Izabel Varejão was out and Saniaa Wilson went into early foul trouble. The freshman finished with 10 rebounds and dominated Parker-Hall in the second half, with seven boards through the final 20 minutes.

While Wood also came through late with key layups and rebounds. At the 9:02 mark of the fourth quarter, Wood reached around Parker-Hall to grab an offensive board off a Woolley miss. The forward went up-and-under to finish a key lay-in to put Syracuse within four.

“If all of us, including me, bring that (energy) in the beginning, it changes the whole game,” Latham said.

Deep in the fourth quarter, Fair and Woolley ultimately outmatched Pape and Parker-Hall’s offensive production. Fair drained a long 3-pointer from the right wing after a Parker-Hall turnover to give SU a 65-63 lead with 3:43 left, its first advantage since the first quarter. Then Pape tied it back up for Cornell, sinking a mid-range look from the left baseline.

The basket was the final tally for Cornell’s frontcourt duo. Fair hit Rice on the right wing for a go-ahead triple at the 2:39 mark, and was followed up by a deep 3-pointer from Woolley to make SU’s lead 72-67. It proved to be the dagger.

Syracuse finished with the better duo, and sealed its sixth straight win.

“Our family, versus those two? I’ll take our chances all day,” Legette-Jack said.

Published on December 19, 2023 at 1:01 am

Contact Cooper at: [email protected] | @cooper_andrews