SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Freshman guard Ali Morris (Parkersburg, W.Va.) had a career-high 17 points to lead Niagara (1-8, 0-2 MAAC) in the Purple Eagles’ 93-54 defeat to the Syracuse Orange (8-2, 0-0 Big East) on Sunday afternoon at the Carrier Dome.

“We played a bigger, stronger and faster team today,” head coach Kendra Faustin said. “They are a high caliber Big East team. You have to do all of the little things right, like boxing out, which we did at times but was not consistent.”

Syracuse’s size proved to be too much for an undersized Niagara squad. The Orange doubled up the Purple Eagles in points in the paint (44-22) in the game and its low post players put Niagara in foul trouble.

Niagara held Syracuse scoreless in the opening 3:30 minutes, but the Orange exploded on a 16-0 run that was broke by a Morris’ 3-pointer at 11:54.

SU, however, did struggle to shot in its half court set, though the Orange made up in points off of turnovers. The Orange scored 49 points from the Purple Eagles’ season-high 31 turnovers.

Niagara arguably played a better final five minutes in the first half. The Purple Eagles committed only one turnover and cut the Orange lead to 13. Despite closing the first half strong, Niagara came out slow in the second half. Syracuse sprinted on a 15-0 run, while NU was 0-for-7 from the field during that span.

As Syracuse’ lead expanded, the Purple Eagles did not stop playing hard and continued to run their offense well against an athletic team.  Morris finished the game with a team-high 17 points and four assists; four other Purple Eagles had six points.  

“Ali did a great job attacking to score and created some great things for else,” Faustin said. “She gave our post players some easy scores. Once we get everybody going, we could be dangerous.”

Niagara returns home to face St. Bonaventure on Wednesday, Dec. 17 at 11 a.m. as part of Niagara University’s Kids’ Day. The game is the first-ever advance sellout in Niagara women’s basketball history.