Syracuse women’s basketball team jumped out to a big first-quarter lead and made it hold up Sunday in a 78-69 win over SMU in Dallas.

It was the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both the Orange (8-1, 1-0) and Mustangs (4-6, 0-1).

SMU entered its home game riding high. After a 1-5 start, the Mustangs rattled off three consecutive victories before Syracuse’s wire-to-wire win.

Syracuse took a 25-9 lead in the first quarter, propelled by Laila Phelia (eight points), Sophie Burrows (six points, three rebounds, two assists) and Dominique Darius (five points, three rebounds).

Paulina Paris provided a spark for SMU with six points in six minutes, but the Mustangs were just 4-of-18 shooting in the period.

SMU bested Syracuse by a point in the second period, going to the locker room down 39-24.

The second half

After playing to a draw in the third period, SMU was trailing by 16 with 8:14 remaining in the game after Burrows drained a three-pointer for the Orange.

The Mustangs went on a 10-2 run to narrow the deficit to eight at 66-58 with 4:49 left but never got any closer.

Burrows led the Orange with 22 points. Phelia contributed 19 points and Darius chipped in 13 with a team-high eight rebounds. Journey Thompson added 10 points off the bench.

For SMU, Sahnya Jah tallied 22 points and nine rebounds. Kyla Deck (14 points) and Ayanna Thompson (11) finished with double digits.

The outlook

Syracuse, thus far, hasn’t looked like a team projected to finish 13th in the ACC. (SMU was predicted to finish 14th). The Orange are averaging 72.2 points per game and giving up 57.4 --- a scoring margin of 14.8 points per game.

They’ve outrebounded the competition by 8.6 points per game and are blocking an average of 6.0 shots, committing 11.9 steals per game and are allowing opponents to shoot 38.5%.

The Orange have three more games before the holiday break and will face Colgate, Binghamton and Mercyhurst. 

When they return, they will dive right into ACC play with a Dec. 28 game against Duke and a Jan. 1 tilt against Florida State. Both games will be held at the JMA Wireless Dome. 

Only three ACC teams appeared in the most recent AP Top 25 rankings: No. 11 North Carolina, No. 18 Notre Dame and No. 22 Louisville.

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