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Syracuse suffered a 73-70 upset loss to UAlbany Wednesday night on a game-winning Lilly Phillips 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds left. However, the defeat was overshadowed by what SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said in the postgame press conference.

Legette-Jack began the press conference with a two-and-a-half-minute opening statement calling out the lack of fan support and the upbeat mood of the assembled media in the press room as the players on the podium fought back tears.

“This is what I’ve been telling our young people on this team. Nobody cares about our program. Nobody cares about women’s basketball,” Legette-Jack said.

The third-year head coach apologized for her remarks Thursday afternoon. Legette-Jack said she was “not proud” of what she said and wished she didn’t say it in a “harsh” and “derogatory” way. But she noted she wanted to send a public message to her players at the press conference.

The Orange will have a chance to show if they took Legette-Jack’s message to heart with a pair of games at the Emerald Coast Classic in Destin, Florida, this week. They play Missouri in their first game on Monday and will meet either Creighton or Wichita State on Tuesday.

Here is everything you need to know about Missouri (5-2, 0-0 Southeast Conference) before its matchup with Syracuse (2-3, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference):

All-time Series

This is the two teams’ first meeting.

The Tigers report

Missouri capitulated in SEC play last season. The Tigers went 2-14 in conference games, losing their last 11 regular season contests. Missouri’s defense was leaky, allowing 71 points per game, which placed them in the bottom 60 nationally. The Tigers also struggled cleaning the offensive glass, placing in the bottom 30 in NCAA for offensive rebounds per game and offensive rebound rate, per HerHoopStats.

Two of Mizzou’s top scorers from last season returned to the program. The Tigers lost leading scorer Hayley Frank (16.4 PPG) to graduation but retained Ashton Judd (13.4 ppg) and Grace Slaughter (11.5 ppg). The Tigers also picked up Southern Illinois transfer Laniah Randle, who has averaged 11 points per game and seven rebounds while shooting 56.9% from the field to start the campaign.

To start the season, Vermont dismantled Missouri 62-46. Mizzou corrected course, winning its next game against Southern before falling to Norfolk State 57-53. Since then, the Tigers have rattled off four wins — albeit against weak opposition — topping Tulane, Western Illinois, Saint Louis and Little Rock. The combined record of the teams Mizzou defeated is 8-18.

How Syracuse wins

Both SU and Missouri have lost games against mid-major opposition thus far, so the Orange need to learn from their losses. Syracuse also must play a more complete game — or not crumble in the second quarter.

The Orange have been outscored 101-73 in the second quarters of games this season. The second-quarter struggles have come following a strong start, where SU led by at least six points in games over Saint Joseph’s, then-No. 11 Maryland and UAlbany. However, all those games resulted in losses; Syracuse was outscored 72-35 in the second quarter of those contests.

However, the Tigers are beatable and play at a slow pace. Missouri averages 69.9 possessions per 40 minutes. SU must allow Mizzou to take its time and force them to take tough shots late in the shot clock. Additionally, Syracuse needs to clean the defensive glass. Currently, it’s ranked No. 333 among 362 teams in defensive rebound rate, according to HerHoopStats.

Stat to know: 41.1

The Tigers have shot a stellar 41.1% from 3 this season. The mark is the 18th-best in Division I, according to HerHoopStats. The Tigers’ success from beyond the arc is spearheaded by Abbey Schreacke, who has taken the sixth most and made the third most 3s in D-I, knocking down 25-of-52 (48.1%) from 3.

Meanwhile, SU boasts a 42% clip from 3, landing it at 15th in the country. Despite Syracuse finding itself with a losing record, Georgia Woolley (50%), Sophie Burrows (54.2%) and Dominique Camp (50%) have thrived from distance.

Monday’s game could see a barrage of triples. Missouri averages 7.6 3s a game, while Syracuse puts up 7.

Player to Watch: Grace Slaughter, guard, No. 0

As a freshman last season, the 6-foot-2 guard was Mizzou’s third scoring option behind Frank and Judd, averaging 11.5 points per game. She scored in double digits 21 times in 2023-24 and never notched less than six points but only exceeded 20 once. However, the 2023 No. 1 recruit from the Show Me State led the team in minutes with 33.6 — sitting fourth in SEC — and averaged the fourth most points by a freshman in the conference. Her efforts earned her a spot on the All-SEC Freshman Team.

To begin this season, Slaughter has become the Tigers’ go-to scoring option, increasing her points per game to 15 while shooting 54.1% from the field — 12-for-17 (70%) from 3 and 87% from the free-throw line. She scored a career-high 22 points in Missouri’s 60-52 win over Tulane on Nov. 12. The Grain Valley, Missouri, native has also upped her steals average from 0.3 to 1.3 this campaign.

Published on November 24, 2024 at 2:00 pm

Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal