Syracuse Shocks Louisville in Final Seconds

The Orange women's basketball team secured a thrilling come from behind victory over the Cardinals.

Syracuse women's basketball rallied from a nine point fourth quarter deficit to shock the Louisville Cardinals 73-72 in the final seconds Sunday in the JMA Wireless Dome. With the win, the Orange improved to 20-4 (10-3) on the season, good for second place in the ACC. 

Super Bowl Sunday brought cooler temperatures to the 315 after a week of high 40s and 50-degree days. Still, inside the JMA Wireless Dome, the action was hot and hectic with a ranked-on-ranked matchup of the 15th-ranked Louisville Cardinals and your 23rd-ranked Syracuse Orange. The Cardinals, in particular under Coach Jeff Walz, came in white-hot on the heels of a big-time road win vs. the 12th-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish, shooting 65 percent in the first quarter and controlling the action and not allowing Syracuse to take any lead in the first half. 

This Louisville team didn’t have a star at the level of Dyaisha Fair, with only three players averaging more than ten points and nobody averaging more than 13. Still, Nyla Harris controlled the paint and the game for the Cardinals through the first twenty minutes, ending the half with 14 points and 7 rebounds (4 offensive) in 17 minutes. She ended the game as Louisville's leading scorer and rebounder, with 22 points and 11 boards. Dyaisha Fair led the way for the Orange with 13 points in the first half, including a big-time step-back to end the half from at least 30 feet to make it a one-possession game, 40-37, to end the half.

The second half was much of the same, with the ballooning back to eight less than a minute into the third quarter and Syracuse fighting from behind the entire game. Syracuse struggled to create efficient offense all game, going on at least three droughts of longer than two minutes without scoring. A technical foul was assessed to Louisville’s Merissah Russell with a little over two minutes left in the third quarter, and Dyaisha Fair hit two free throws for the Orange to get a chance to cut it to a 1-point lead. Still, SU was unable to seize momentum from the Cardinals, and it looked like Louisville was well on their way to a second consecutive road conference win over a ranked opponent.

However, with four minutes left, everything changed. 

Fair pulled up on the 1-on-3 fastbreak off a Louisville turnover to nail a triple to cut the SU deficit to one. The teams battled between a one-possession for the next two minutes before a Sonia Wilson block led to a transition chance for Dyaisha Fair, who converted the easy layup to give Syracuse their first lead of the game with a little over 1:30 left, 69-68. Louisville senior Olivia Cochran gave the Cardinals back the lead 70-69 after the SU foul with two free throws (two of the 24 Louisville attempted on the day, making 23 of them). 

Cochran scored in the post over Alyssa Latham, who was invaluable today with nine points and six blocks, to give the Cardinals a 72-69, before Kennedi Perkins, who only got ten minutes but was praised by Coach Jack several times in the post-game presser, nailed a long two to cut it back to a one-point deficit for SU. Latham got her sixth and final block of the ensuing Cardinal possession, and after a whirlwind sequence, an intentional foul on Olivia Cochran gave the Orange two free throws with 2.3 seconds remaining, which Dyaisha Fair hit in front of a silenced Dome. The Orange got the ball back as a result of the intentional foul, and Fair eluded a Louisville foul to pull-out a thriller, 73-72.

“Unbreakable. That’s the word I like to use, and I think this team exemplified that.” said Coach Legette-Jack in her post-game presser after pulling out this win. 

Syracuse pulled right ahead of Louisville at the top of the ACC standings, sitting alone in second place with five regular season games to go. The next two will be on the road. They will be in Coral Gables this Thursday facing off against Miami, before heading to Virginia on the 18th to face off against the Cavaliers. 

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