BY MIKE ROSE
Dyaisha Fair (Edison Tech) and Syracuse’s second-half surge came up short as the Orange were eliminated in the second round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament by the UConn Huskies, 72-64. The Orange were seeking their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2016 when they fell to the Huskies in the national championship game.
Fair finished with 20 points for Syracuse with 18 coming in the second-half comeback effort. She also added six assists and three steals. Fair shot 1-for-9 from the floor in the first half as UConn built an 11-point lead at the break. Syracuse head coach Felisha Legette-Jack, who has coached Fair for the last five years, knew she would find a way to shake off the slow start.
“She’s always going to battle. That’s just how she’s built,” Legette-Jack said. “She’s from Rochester. Just have a bad day and just walk in the bad section of Rochester. You got to say locked on ready. Walk and break off, right? That’s where she’s from and that’s what she does and that’s how she plays. I just really wish that her struggle wasn’t so enormous in the first half because she deserved to be celebrated a little bit more.”
Fair finally got going in the second. Behind her renewed offensive output and the three-point shooting of Georgia Wooley and Sophie Burrows, Syracuse cut the margin to 65-63 with under two minutes to play. In the end, Paige Bueckers and the Huskies had too much firepower for the Orange as they closed on a 7-1 burst to advance.
“Yeah, that’s one heck of a player,” Bueckers said of Fair. “Definitely the numbers speak for itself but one of the best scorers college basketball has ever seen. Very tough cover. I give Nika a lot of credit for chasing her around the whole entire game and making things tough for her. We know she’s going to hit tough shots. The objective is just to try to limit them and make them as contested as can be without fouling, but she’s — the way she keeps the ball and the way she has it on a string, she can shoot the three. She can get to her mid-range. She can finish at the rim. A great three-level scorer and she’s one of the toughest covers.”
Buckers finished the night with 32 points, 10 rebounds and six assists to lead UConn to its 30th consecutive Sweet 16 appearance.
Fair’s five-year collegiate career came to a close with the loss. After beginning her career with three seasons at the University of Buffalo she followed Legette-Jack to Syracuse ahead of the 2022-23 season. She finishes her career with 3,403 career points, the third most in NCAA women’s basketball history behind only Kelsey Plum and Caitlin Clark. Fair leapfrogged past Jackie Stiles and Kelsey Mitchell for the third-place spot during Monday night’s loss. She opted to use her fifth year of eligibility granted from COVID-19 to return to the Orange for this season. Legette-Jack who recruited and coached Fair for the last five years was emotional after their final game together.
“Yeah. I just told her that there’s a period for everything in this world, and there’s a beginning and this is the period,” Legette-Jack said. “This ends it right here. The beautiful thing is that she begins again (tearfully), and it won’t be easy because you see how hard she worked, you want to keep protecting her from it all, you know? You want to let people see as a big woman I am, how aggressive I speak, I can protect her, and now she’s getting ready to go out there as this little, young lady. Some people don’t really notice, don’t give her a fair chance and I know she’s ready, but it won’t be easy for either one of us.”
Wooley, who played with Fair for all three seasons of her college career thus far, shared how big an impact Fair has had on her.
“I thought I was the one that had it together, y’all, what? Wow. (Tearfully) Everything,” Wooley said. “This is all I know, right? I came to Buffalo and I was welcomed and Dyaisha — ah, man. Stop. She’s taught me so much not just about basketball but just everything, you know? She’s just amazing and she’s just going to do amazing things at the next level and I’m so excited to see it and I just couldn’t be prouder and that’s all I have to say, really. I’m just so thankful for the time that I got to play with you and I’m excited for what’s next. (Fist bump with Dyaisha) That was cute.”
Fair reflected on her storied career coming to a close.
“I think that I was taking in the fact that it was over with this program for me,” Fair said. “Other than that, I think I feel like we just, as we spoke in the locker room, we just ran out of time, and that was kind of my mindset at the end when the last horn sounded.
“For me, I think that this was the best year of my career, and, you know, that’s probably the thing that I’ll look back at. When I had the choice to leave, I didn’t know that this would be the best year of my career.”
Fair’s next step in her basketball career will likely come at the next level in the WNBA. The WNBA Draft is scheduled for April 15 and Fair is projected to be a late second-round to early third-round selection when the proceedings begin in Brooklyn next month.
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