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STORRS, Conn. — A few days before the NCAA Tournament, Syracuse head coach Felisha Legette-Jack revealed that star guard Dyaisha Fair sent her an emotional text.

The text asked: “Can I have this last dance?”

To that, Legette-Jack responded, “Of course, D.”

With the Orange trailing 66-61 and just three minutes left in the game, they needed Fair’s magic more than ever. So she did what she does best: take over.

After Fair nailed consecutive shots from the midrange cutting SU’s deficit to 66-65, Georgia Woolley altered Arizona’s Skylar Jones’ game-tying floater attempt. Syracuse forward Kyra Wood grabbed the ball and without hesitation passed to Fair. As Fair brought the ball across halfcourt, her eyes only left the rim to dribble the ball between her legs before stepping back at the top of the key.

With just enough separation from Jada Williams, Fair drew nylon from behind the arc, draining her seventh straight point to give the Orange a 68-66 lead with 1:17 remaining in the fourth quarter. It was just SU’s third lead of the game, which Fair solidified with her ninth straight point on a mid-range shot 32 seconds later.

In No. 6 seed Syracuse’s (24-7, 13-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) first NCAA Tournament under second-year head coach Legette-Jack, it defeated No. 11 seed Arizona (18-16, 8-10 Pac-12) 74-69 in the Round of 64 on the back of Fair. The graduate student scored 13 of her game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter, netting the Orange their first NCAA Tournament win since 2021. Fair’s 32 points were a single-game NCAA Tournament program record and advanced SU to face No. 3 seed UConn Monday.

“The scorer that I am, the confidence that I have, and the confidence that my teammates and my coaching staff instill in me throughout the year is just keep going,” Fair said postgame. “It’s just keep going and trust your work.”

Despite Fair playing every second of the first three quarters, it was in doubt whether she would keep going. After Fair nailed a layup to tie the game 51-51 with 16 seconds left in the third quarter, SU guard Kennedi Perkins stole Arizona’s inbounds pass.

This set Syracuse up to potentially take its first lead since it led 6-5, but Fair was stopped by a triple team in the paint, failing to get a shot off. On the attempt, Fair hit the deck and couldn’t get up. Postgame, she said that she twisted her knee before landing on it.

Fair hobbled with assistance into the locker room and it seemed her status to return was in doubt. But two minutes into the fourth quarter, Fair returned to the bench.

“When she came to the bench and I looked at her, she said, ‘Coach, two words. I’m good.’ I smacked her hand so hard, I might have broke her arm,” Legette-Jack said.

With Fair managing her injury, Syracuse needed its secondary scorers to step up. Perkins responded by scoring SU’s first two baskets, which gave it a 55-53 lead just after Fair re-entered. Yet Arizona responded to its first deficit since the first quarter by going on a 7-2 run, regaining a 60-57 lead after guard Helena Pueyo knocked down a 3.

Perkins, who averaged just six minutes per game across SU’s last 10 games, was part of Syracuse’s primary rotation consisting of herself, Fair, Alaina Rice/Woolley, Wood and Alyssa Latham in the second half.

It was a unique lineup that Syracuse hadn’t utilized all season but had to because of its early-game struggles.

For the second straight game, the Orange struggled in the first quarter. In its ACC Tournament loss versus FSU, SU shot 6-for-18 from the floor across the first 10 minutes of the game. Versus the Wildcats, Syracuse was 6-for-17, creating a 21-15 deficit.

Arizona’s defensive pressure hounded SU. The Wildcats, who average the fifth-most steals per game in D-I, used a full-court press that caused six turnovers in the first 10 minutes. In the halfcourt, they contained Fair — who averages the 10th-most points per game in Division I this season (22.0) — by forcing her mostly off the ball, which resulted in just two field goal attempts.

“That’s a great defensive team we played against,” Legette-Jack said. “That stick ’em defense, that’s where that name came from because, when I tell you those young ladies know how to play defense and coach that defensive side of the ball, we had to figure out how to get (Fair) open.”

To start the second quarter, SU produced by getting the ball inside. Alyssa Latham scored off a post move for the first points of the quarter before Woolley went coast-to-coast to cut Syracuse’s deficit to 21-19.

Yet, even with Fair canning a 3 on the Orange’s next possession, Arizona embarked on a 10-3 run anchored by back-to-back 3-pointers from Williams, giving it a 31-22 lead at the 6:03 mark of the second quarter. In the Wildcats’ First Four win versus Auburn, Williams led them with 17 points.

Throughout the rest of the second, both teams struggled, as Arizona led 35-27 a minute before the half. To close the half, Fair put her head down and successfully got to the rim, converting an and-one plus a layup helping the Orange trail just 37-32 at halftime.

Coming out of the half, Syracuse, who shot 2-for-8 from 3 in the first half, immediately made back-to-back triples courtesy of Fair and Woolley to cut its deficit to 39-38. The Wildcats responded with a run of their own, as a steal from Pueyo — who averages 3.2 steals per game, a top-10 mark in D-I — led to a fastbreak layup that gave the Wildcats a 45-39 lead.

But Syracuse answered right back as Fair knocked down her third of a game-high four 3s before Perkins converted on a layup, bringing the score to 47-44 halfway through the third. In 23 minutes played, her most since she played 26 in SU’s win over Notre Dame on Dec. 31, Perkins led the Orange with a +13 plus/minus and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field.

With its new-look rotation in the third quarter, SU held Arizona to 3-of-9 shooting. The new lineup helped ignite the Orange’s 14 second-half forced turnovers compared to only seven in the first.

While SU struggled from the free throw line throughout the third — it shot 12-for-23 throughout the game — its stifling defense and baskets down the stretch from Wood and Fair tied the game 51-51 heading into the fourth quarter — a familiar spot for Syracuse.

“We’ve been there before,” Fair said. “When you have experience, you know what it takes to win, you know what it takes to have success.”

Across their program-record 23-win regular season, the Orange’s — and Fair’s — best moments came in the fourth quarter. Against Clemson, then-No. 15 Florida State, then-No. 15 Louisville, Pitt and in both of SU’s wins over current-No. 9 Notre Dame, Fair shined.

Saturday at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion was no different. Fair’s heroic personal 11-0 run, which encompassed three mid-range makes, a snipe from 3 and a pair of made free throws, gave Syracuse a 72-66 lead. A made 3 from Pueyo cut SU’s lead to 72-69, but Fair put the game away at the free throw line, draining both of her shots from the charity stripe.

“She came through,” Legette-Jack said. “She’s a special young lady.”

Published on March 23, 2024 at 6:08 pm

Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon