On the heels of a loss to Notre Dame in which Syracuse never led, head coach Quentin Hillsman squatted and averted his sightline away from the scoreboard as he watched his team struggle to make its first basket of the game.

Briana Day tried to weave her way through two Louisville defenders with the Orange having been shutout for the opening two and a half minutes. The ball flew out of her hands as the Cardinals defense closed in.

On SU’s ensuing possession she clanked a layup off the back of the rim, and the tumultuous start to the game for the Orange’s junior center was punctuated by two missed free throws.

“It was just sloppy,” Day said. “I wasn’t playing hard, really.”

“…That’s not how you want to start off the game.

Syracuse finally scored on a Cornelia Fondren jumper after nearly four minutes of being shut out, and Briana Day was lifted for her sister Bria two minutes later. Briana Day high-fived her teammates with her head down, and waved off the team manager offering her a water bottle as she tried to piece together another lackluster start for SU.

The Orange (14-6, 4-3 Atlantic Coast) faltered early again, falling behind by as many as 29 in the first half, and lost 71-53 to the No. 14 Cardinals (15-5, 7-0) just four days after being blown out by 28 points against the Fighting Irish. Syracuse was stung by poor play from its centers, who totaled only two defensive rebounds and struggled to box out a bulky Louisville team under the basket.

Briana Day, SU’s leading rebounder, has secured only 12 rebounds in the Orange’s last three games after corralling 10 boards against Pittsburgh on Jan. 14.

“I don’t know what it is,” Day said, “I’m not rebounding.”

“…I don’t understand what’s going on.”

Hillsman leaned on a rotation of both Day sisters and Julia Chandler at center to solve his team’s scoring and defensive woes. Upon entering the game with 1:49 remaining in the first quarter, Chandler was promptly rung up for a three-second violation as she dished the ball outside the arc to an open Brittney Sykes.

The Orange’s centers were a revolving door of missteps early on, and Cardinals guard Myisha Hines-Allen — who led the game with 27 points — consistently made it tough down low for SU’s bigs.

Hines-Allen bodied her way past Chandler under the basket for a layup on the first possession of the second quarter, continuing to balloon Louisville’s eventual 34 total points scored in the paint.

“I think our transition defense really broke us down,” Fondren said. “…We should’ve just kept on competing.”

SU countered with only 18 points in the paint, and was consistently met with pressure down low from the Cardinals center-less starting lineup.

Briana Day corralled a pair of offensive rebounds in a stretch of seconds midway through the second quarter, but failed to capitalize on the opportunity as she heaved a layup over the basket entirely and into the hands of the Cardinals’ defense.

Syracuse eventually evened out on the offensive end and clawed back to an 11-point deficit, but was met with familiar problems in the paramount minutes of the fourth quarter.

On one of the Orange’s final fast break attempts with the game within reach, Sykes looked down the court to a streaking Bria Day. She lobbed a long pass forward that just deflected off Bria Day’s outstretched hand, dinging the Orange for another one of its 19 turnovers.

The play provided a sense of finality to the game, one that was always out of reach.

Said Hillsman: “I don’t think we were ready to play. We came out flat.”

Published on January 25, 2016 at 11:20 pm

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman