Both teams started out hot, but Clemson Women’s Basketball led by 7 after the high-scoring first quarter that ended with the Tigers up 27-20.
Syracuse dominated the second quarter by a score of 25-10 to take an 8-point halftime lead and won the third and fourth quarters, too in pulling away for a 91-77 win over the Tigers in Littlejohn Coliseum Sunday afternoon.
Clemson drops to 11-6 and 2-3 in the ACC, while Syracuse improved to 12-4 and 3-2 in the conference.
The Orange dominated on the boards, outrebounding Clemson by 16, while shooting 45.2% from the field and 39.1% from three-point range.
The Tigers meanwhile, shot 40.8% from the field and 30.4% from three-point distance.
Dyaisha Fair paced Syracuse with 27 points on 8 of 15 shooting from the field, including 6 of 11 from three.
Four other Orange players reached double digits, including 14 each from Teisha Hyman and Georgia Woolley, 13 from Asia Strong and 12 from Dariauna Lewis.
Lewis and Strong also pulled down 10 rebounds apiece for Syracuse, giving them both double-doubles on the afternoon.
Daisha Bradford scored 19 to lead Clemson, with Amari Robinson and Eno Inyang both scoring 14.
Robinson led the Tigers with 8 rebounds, with Inyang contributing 7.
After shooting 52.6% from the field in the opening quarter, Clemson shot 36.5% from the field for the balance of the game.
Clemson Women’s Basketball cut the lead to 4 twice, but could get no closer
A ten point run by the Tigers cut the Syracuse lead to 74-70 with just under 6 minutes to go before Hyman hit a three to make it a 7 point game.
A minute and a half later, a Ruby Whitehorn 3 made it a four point game again, but Clemson could never close the gap closer than that.
In the coming week, the Tigers face two road contests, first traveling to Durham to take on Duke Thursday at 7 p.m. and then to Pittsburgh for a 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon contest against the Panthers.
Both contests are scheduled for broadcast on ACCNX with live stats available on ClemsonTigers.com.