Syracuse women's team travels to Depaul Tuesday

Syracuse's second game as a ranked team will be their first game ever facing another ranked team.

The AP voted Syracuse 22nd and put Depaul right behind them at 23rd. The Blue Demons enter the game with a 15-4 record and 4-2 conference record. Depaul enters the game as hot as the Orange, winning four of five, and is coming off a pounding win against Cincinnati 81-51.

Depaul is currently ranked 41st in the RPI and has quality wins at 15-5 Notre Dame and 17-1 Illinois State. They have bad losses at home against Tennessee and Pitt. Normally losses to those teams aren't too bad, but the Blue Demons lost 102-68 to the Volunteers and 97-68 to the Panthers. They also lost 65-56 at 11-8 Marquette ten days ago.

It's very hard to win against the Blue Demons in the Depaul. They've won all but four of their last forty home games. The Blue Demons draw pretty well as they've had a crowd of more than 2,000 almost every game.

Allie Quigley leads Depaul in points (18.2 ppg), steals, assists, and free throw shooting. She's all around one of the best players in the Big East. She's part of a strong scoring attack. The Blue Demons average 82 points per game, something many men's teams can't even do.

Natasha Williams leads the team in rebounding at 7.4 per game and blocks with 34.

Depaul is a average shooting team from three at 34.5% and hits about seven per game. They will need strong shooting from the outside to beat the tough Syracuse 2-3 zone Coach Quentin Hillsman has adopted from Jim Boeheim.

Key for Syracuse: Get all the scorers on this team involved early. They will need several girls hitting shots all game to beat the Blue Demons. They can't rely on one player to take over like in some of their previous games.

Final Prediction: Depaul 74, Syracuse 71. Depaul is a little too good for a relatively young and inexperienced Syracuse to win in. The Orange has struggled on the road, expect more struggles Tuesday.