Syracuse Gives #3 Louisville All it Can Handle, But Fades in Final Minutes

The Cardinals pulled away in the final minutes as the Orange nearly pulled off a major upset.

Engines were started right away in the derby city tonight, as Syracuse and No. 3 Louisville chased each other up and down the court from start to finish in another entertaining ACC matchup.

The game saw two teams infatuated with the fast break challenge the other’s speed at almost every turn, even making it look like track meet at times as they hunted for transition opportunities. When the dust finally settled, the scoreboard reflected an 84-71 victory in favor of the Cardinals, handing the Orange their fourth straight loss and dropping their conference record to 1-5.

In getting there, the Cardinals took an early lead thanks to a hot start for Hailey Van Lith, who ended up tying Kianna Smith for a game-high 20 points. But the Orange kept stride, knocking down some timely triples that would eventually become their bread and butter for the night.

Louisville coasted with that small lead all the way until the second period’s closing moments, even jumping out 40-29 with less than two minutes before halftime. Determined to apply some pressure going into the break though, Syracuse closed on a 6-0 run thanks to a four free-throw sequence from Christianna Carr following a technical foul, and then an Alaina Rice layup around the 40-second mark.

But at that point, it was still Chrislyn Carr largely keeping the Orange afloat. At the break, she sat with a team-high 8 points, having also dished out two assists and grabbed three rebounds. Her second half encore was even better though.

With the Orange still trailing right around the four-minute mark in the third period, Carr helped the team come through with a barrage of triples to take a quick lead. Teisha Hyman first started to heat up, knocking down a three and then another jumper during the following possession. But a few moments after that, Carr let one fly from beyond the arc, splashing it through the net even while falling away to cut Syracuse’s deficit to one point.

The Orange forced a miss at the other end right after, handing it back to Hyman who then scored on the break, giving Syracuse its first lead since the game’s first two minutes.

The Cardinals responded with a few buckets to retain a 59-56 advantage entering the fourth, but the Orange kept the momentum going. Alaysia Styles opened the final period’s scoring with a layup to cut back into the lead, and a few minutes later, Carr came back with another bucket to tie the game with seven minutes to go.

After that point though, the Orange finally appeared to run out of gas. The Cardinals started locking up on defense and forcing the Orange into more turnovers. Louisville’s Olivia Cochran started dominating the paint as each team’s fast break units lost their pep, and the Orange fell behind on a 22-9 run by the Cardinals.

In the record books, the game goes down as another tough loss for the Orange, but on a more positive note, they went toe-to-toe with yet another ranked team tonight and put up 71 points on the country’s top scoring defense.

The Orange next face off against Virginia, looking to end this tough spell. The Cavaliers offer them a solid chance to do so, having lost their last four games while sporting a 3-10 overall record.