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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Seated in front of the Syracuse bench, her legs bent, senior guard Georgia Woolley covered her face as tears ran down her cheeks. Her teammates behind her lifted her to her feet by each arm.

Woolley remained inconsolable. She removed her mouth guard — a feature showing why SU guard Sophie Burrows calls Woolley the most competitive person she’s ever met. As Woolley made her way through the postgame handshake line, her left hand squeezed the arch of her nose, trying to stop the tears.

She buried her head in her jersey, then left her jersey hanging just below her nose. The ‘Syracuse’ emblazoned on the uniform hung just below her plaintive eyes in her likely last game sporting the school’s colors.

The Australian’s last-second 3-point heave to keep Syracuse’s season going fell short. It was the coup de grace of a 17-point second-half collapse that saw Syracuse (12-18, 6-12 Atlantic Coast) exit the ACC Tournament in the first round following a 76-73 defeat to Boston College (17-16, 6-12 Atlantic Coast) Wednesday. The Orange’s search for their first win at the conference tournament since 2021 continues, as their season likely ends. BC’s win marked the third-largest halftime comeback in ACC Tournament history.

“Frustrated, angry,” Syracuse forward Kyra Wood said of her emotions postgame. “We didn’t have to lose that game. We didn’t control things we could’ve controlled. We didn’t play team basketball. And we just didn’t do what we needed to do.”

With 4.5 seconds left trailing by three, the Orange inbounded the ball into Woolley on the right wing. The senior was instantly smothered by two Eagles defenders. She hoisted a 3-point shot over the outstretched arms of two BC players. It fell way short into the arms of Boston College’s Savannah Samuel.

As the final grains of sand slipped through SU’s season’s hourglass, the vicissitude of its positive position from less than an hour earlier was complete. After demolishing Boston College 82-57 Sunday — a revenge result to a 92-51 Eagles walloping, the worst loss of head coach Felisha Legette-Jack’s tenure on Jan. 19, where SU was without Woolley — Wednesday’s rematch looked on course for a similar outcome. Syracuse shot 51.4% in the first half and held a 45-28 lead at the break.

It all unraveled from there.

“When the fight came back in the third quarter, around the eight-minute mark, I looked in our eyes and I saw panic again,” Legette-Jack said postgame, holding back tears.

Still, Syracuse positioned itself to avoid the catastrophic collapse. It led 72-66 with 3:30 remaining in the fourth quarter, as Wood dropped in a layup. On the ensuing BC possession, Burrows, who scored a team-high 23 points, dove to the court to secure a jump ball and regain possession for the Orange as the clock waned below three minutes.

But BC didn’t fold. Dontavia Waggoner, who scored a game-high 32 points, sank a pair of free throws. Then, Waggoner swiped the ball from Woolley and took it to the hoop for an and-one layup. Despite missing the free throw, the guard pulled the Eagles within two points.

Saniaa Wilson extended the Orange’s lead to three points when she split a pair at the free-throw line. Though that was Syracuse’s last point, as BC went on a 6-0 run in the final 1:37.

Waggoner converted an and-one putback layup after securing Boston College’s third offensive rebound of the possession and had a chance to tie the game at the line. She again couldn’t make the free throw, but the Eagles gathered another offensive rebound and JaKayla Thompson netted a floater for their first lead of the game at 74-73 with 1:26 left. The Eagles led the ACC with 14.8 offensive boards per game in the regular season.

Woolley took up the offensive reins but was called for a charge on a made layup on the ensuing possession. Legette-Jack sunk to her left knee and clapped her hands in exasperation. Next, Woolley forced a turnover at the 1:01 mark, giving the ball back to the Orange. However, they couldn’t do anything with it.

Boston College added to its lead at the line, and Woolley’s desperation hoist was short.

“They frazzled us, and we didn’t find a way to come together and bounce back,” an emotional Woolley said postgame.

The first word out of Legette-Jack’s mouth postgame was “rebounding.” BC outrebounded Syracuse 27-12 in the second half, propelling its furious comeback.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t go after those loose balls and wasn’t willing to die trying to get a rebound,” Legette-Jack said. “And that cost us.”

The Eagles started the second half on a 14-1 run, where the head coach sensed “sheer panic” within her team that didn’t score until the 6:02 mark. But Burrows stood out as undeterred by the momentum shift. The sophomore scored SU’s first 10 points of the quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers, and finished with 23 points on 9-for-14 shooting.

“As coach said, we were panicking a little bit,” Burrows said. “So I think just staying calm and reading the defense and seeing what they were giving me, and then reading off that and just trying to bring the energy for my team in any way possible.”

Boston College head coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee said her team was “disheveled” in the first half but praised the Eagles’ rebounding and Waggoner taking over. The guard scored 20 second-half points to the Orange’s 28 total.

After the slow start to the third quarter, SU regained its bearings and closed it with a four-point lead despite being outscored 28-15.

“(BC) just dominated,” Wood said. “They went on a run, and we couldn’t get ours, our mental back, our team basketball back, whatever it was, we couldn’t get it back.”

Wood added that SU’s game plan included boxing out, something that went away in the second half, but noted it didn’t matter what the game plan entailed because Syracuse didn’t execute.

So, instead of advancing to the second round, which seemed likely at halftime, Syracuse’s season likely ended. For seniors like Woolley and Wood, it was probably their final collegiate game — a reality reflected in their tearful postgame emotions.

“We could’ve went far in this tournament, we had a chance, and we blew it,” Wood said.

Published on March 5, 2025 at 3:28 pm

Contact Nicholas: njalumka@syr.edu | @nalumkal