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After defeating North Carolina on Sunday and extending its winning streak to three games, Syracuse faced on Thursday its first top-25 ranked opponent, No. 1 Louisville. The Orange and Cardinals split two regular season contests last year before Louisville ended SU’s season in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. 

After Thursday’s 67-54 loss, head coach Quentin Hillsman is 0-9 all-time against top-ranked opponents, and the program remains winless against top teams.

Prior to the game, Louisville (13-0, 6-0 ACC) averaged a conference-best 86 points per game, but it struggled with Syracuse’s (7-2, 4-2 ACC) press in the first half. Eventually, the Cardinals began to break through the half-court press routinely in the second half, leading to open looks for shooters on the wing. Conference scoring leader Dana Evans, who is averaging nearly 20 points per game was 9-of-20 from the field for 21 points. Evans, along with Hailey Van Lith and Olivia Cochran, scored 50 of Louisville’s points. 

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Low-post scoring

Throughout the season, Hillsman has said that his team will not adjust its strategy away from its three-point shooting. But against Louisville, Syracuse leaned on its height advantage against the Cardinals in the paint. In the first half, Kamilla Cardoso and Emily Engstler combined for 20 of SU’s 29 points. SU scored all but five of its points in the paint, as the Orange converted just one shot from behind the three-point line. 

Part of those points were due to fast breaks off of Cardinal turnovers. Early in the second quarter, Syracuse swiped the basketball from Louisville near midcourt, with Tiana Mangakahia corralling possession. After taking a couple of quick dribbles upcourt, the fifth-year senior heaved a half-court pass from the head of the Cardinal logo.

Her pass found the outstretched hands of Cardoso, who easily scored a wide-open layup to take an 18-17 lead. 

But besides fast-break offense, Cardoso was able to easily nab rebounds over the outstretched hands of players boxing her out. At 6-foot-7, Cardoso had a 6-inch height advantage over Elizabeth Balogun, who was often positioned in the paint. 

Those easy offensive rebounds resulted in putbacks. If those missed, Cardoso was often able to collect her own rebound and keep going up for shots, leading to bank-in baskets or foul shots.

Tiring half court defense

Hillsman positioned his guards to play press defense for the majority of the game, leading to early struggles for Evans, who began the game 0-6 from the field while turning the ball over three times. The strategy was successful for most of the first half, as SU was able to leak out on fast breaks for easy scores. 

But the press eventually started to fatigue Mangakahia and Kiara Lewis, who played the whole game. Early in the second half, the duo pressed up near midcourt to press Evans, who threw a pass cross-court to Van Lith for a wide-open three. The second best recruit in the 2020 recruiting class nailed a wide open three, one of her six makes from deep. 

Often Hillsman had his defense inch upcourt in 1-3-1 positioning, allowing the Cardinals wide spaces to work through its offense once crossing half court. Early in the third quarter, Louisville head coach Jeff Walz’s team went on a 9-0 run and scored 6-7 field goals.

Too many shooters

While Evans finished with 21 points, she was just 9-20 from the field. But the Cardinals were able to rely on its three-point shooters, as Walz’s squad shot 44.4% from deep. 

Nearly five minutes into the game, Louisville began to find Van Lith for open 3s. After taking a pass from Evans, Van Lith hit a deep shot from the left wing before nailing her second shot of the game from the right corner two possessions later. 

A few minutes before halftime, Van Lith took a handoff pass from Evans, as the ACC’s leading scorer blocked off multiple defenders. As Van Lith caught the ball, she hop-stepped to square her shoulders to the hoop, rose up and nailed another triple. 

Eventually, Van Lith finished with 18 points, shooting 6-14 from the field. While she was the main focal point from 3 for the Cardinals, Syracuse was also forced to keep track of Kianna Smith, Balogun and Evans.

Published on January 21, 2021 at 11:06 pm

Contact Thomas: tgshults@syr.edu | @ThomasShults_