Syracuse women’s basketball: Orange defeat Howard 78-62

The Syracuse Orange women’s basketball team (6-1) bounced back from loss to Michigan when they defeated the Howard Bison 78-62 yesterday at the JMA Dome.

Uche Idoze led the Orange with 20 points (on 8-12 shooting), 9 rebounds and 7 blocks in just 28 minutes of action. Laila Phelia had 14 points (3-5 from 3), Journey Thompson added 12 points off the bench and Shy Hawkins had 10 in her first start of the season. Angelica Velez came off the bench to dish out 9 assists for the Orange.

Syracuse showed a little bit of rust from their week off as they were slow out of the gate, but a 9-2 run late in the first quarter helped them to get a bit of distance from the Bison. Howard kept fighting to keep this a game, and it was a 5-0 run from Izoje that gave Syracuse their biggest lead of the half at 35-21.

The Bison made a run to get to within 10 late in the third quarter but a Sophie Burrows 3 in the final minute stopped that momentum heading into the fourth. Idoze helped Syracuse close out the win with 10 points in the final quarter helped by Hawkins who added 6 of her 10 points as the Orange were able to coast home with their fifth straight home win to start the season.

One potential issue to watch is that Phelia left the game with 2:09 to go in the third quarter and did not return. The Orange host the Auburn Tigers (8-1) on Wednesday night at 5:00 so we’ll have to keep an eye out for news on Phelia’s status for that one.