WBB at Syracuse Jan 28 at Noon on ACCN

The #19 Ladies travel up north to face #22 Syracuse. The game will be on the ACC Network. Syracuse is 17-2 and 7-1 in conference. The Hokies are 15-4 and 5-2 in conference. Winning this game could put us in a tie for first place, depending on how UNC-UVA and Pitt-Louisville go.

Syracuse has lost to #20 UNC and Maryland, who was ranked at the time. They have beaten #15 Notre Dame twice, #23 FSU and RV Iowa State. Their last game was a 79-64 thumping of Notre Dame at ND.

The Orange start a freshman, 2 juniors and 2 grad students. #2 5'5" guard Dyaisha Fair is the featured player. She plays 36 min/game, scores 20.7 ppg, shoots 38.6% and 38.5% from three, has 3.5 assists per game, 2.3 blocks and 4.4 rebounds. Whoever gets the assignment to cover her is going to have her work cut out for her. Syracuse has 3 Australians on the team. #5 6'0" Georgia Woolley starts at guard; #4 6'2" freshman guard Sophie Burrows comes off the bench for 15 min/game; #0 6' freshman guard Madeline Potts has not played this year. Fair has played all 40 minutes in the last couple of games. Woolley, Rice and Latham play 27-30 minutes and Wood plays about 21.5. Burrows, Wilson And Perkins come off the bench for 15-20 minutes each. Varajao has not played recently.

Syracuse wins the rebounding battle by almost 9 rebounds per game. They have more turnovers than assists per game and average almost 10 steals per game. While playing a fairly challenging schedule, they have outscored their opponents by almost 15 ppg. Kitley will have about a 3" height advantage over her defender most of the time; she is going to have to continue scoring as she has recently. And Amoore and company are going to have to give her a lot of support in this game. Summiel will have to continue her scrappy rebounding support to keep the Orange in check; they average 17 offensive rebounds per game.

Four Syracuse starters score in double digits and the fifth scores 7.6 ppg in 22 minutes. Fair and Rice shoot nearly 39% from three and Latham shoots 45% on limited attempts. Syracuse averages 7.3 made threes per game. Woolley only shoots 24% from three and Wood has not attempted a three this year.

Syracuse is a very good team and winning on the road in the ACC is always challenging. Winning this one is going to require the Hokies to play very good defense and get contributions from players other than Kitley and Amoore on offense.

Syracuse likes their starters to play a lot of minutes; they have played 35-40 minutes in the last two games. But they can have foul troubles. At the end of the ND game 2 players had 4 fouls and 2 had 3. If the Hokies can force the Orange into foul trouble and get the bench players onto the court, they will have a better chance to win this game.

LET'S GO HOKIES!