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Coming off its second-worst shooting performance of the season in its loss to then-No. 19 Virginia Tech, No. 21 Syracuse needed a bounce-back performance facing No. 16 Louisville on the road.

Instead of throwing a 2-3 zone at the Orange as the Hokies did, the Cardinals played a variety of different defenses. Louisville applied constant double teams to Dyaisha Fair while playing man-to-man, along with a zone that SU rarely found the soft spots against.

For the second consecutive game, the Orange’s offense drastically struggled. Shooting 36.2% from the field, Syracuse (17-4, 7-3 ACC) notched its third-worst shooting percentage of the season in its 81-69 loss against No. 16 Louisville (19-3, 8-1 ACC). SU struggled immensely from inside the arc, shooting 25-for-69 from 2 and 11-for-23 from the free throw line. The loss marked the first time this season SU has lost back-to-back games.

Facing the No. 1 seed in the ACC, Syracuse’s offense was in disarray early. After Alaina Rice missed the first shot of the game, Louisville immediately applied a double-team to Fair. Forcing Fair to get rid of the ball, she passed to Woolley, who coughed the ball up. On SU’s next possession, Alyssa Latham traveled.

This allowed the Cardinals to take a 4-0 lead, but Fair, who scored a game-high 28 points, got SU rolling offensively as the Orange made their next six shots. Despite facing a double team from the Cardinals beyond the 3-point arc, Fair maneuvered her way into the mid-range and drained a fadeaway jumper.

The Cardinals again double-teamed Fair, allowing Woolley to get an open mid-range shot to cut SU’s deficit to one. Fair then ignited SU’s next three baskets. On a fastbreak, Fair scooped in a beautiful up-and-under reverse, then after facing another double team, she assisted a Woolley mid-range jumper. On the ensuing possession, Fair fired a beautiful pass into the paint for an easy layup for Kyra Wood, giving Syracuse a 10-6 lead.

Throughout the remainder of the opening period, Syracuse and Louisville traded baskets, but the Orange left points on the board. Syracuse entered Thursday as the fourth-best offensive rebounding team in the country and it corralled six offensive boards in the first quarter, but it only notched two second-chance points. Additionally, Syracuse got to the free throw for seven attempts, but it made just two shots.

“(Syracuse) had 13 second-chance points, we had 12. We were right there one for and I thought if we could keep that close, we were going to have a chance,” said Louisville head coach Jeff Walz postgame.

Despite its missed opportunities, Syracuse led 21-14 after one, but the Cardinals quickly capitalized on the Orange’s poor offense. After five consecutive misses to finish the first, Syracuse started the second with six more misfires and four turnovers.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Louisville deployed what forward Nyla Haris described as a matchup zone. The Cardinals would start playing the Orange man-to-man, but once the ball handler penetrated inside the arc, Louisville collapsed its defense. SU responded by mostly forcing mid-range shots, which is what Louisville wanted SU to do, Harris noted postgame.

The Cardinals also applied full-court pressure, a box and one and straight man-to-man defense within the first five possessions of the quarter. SU had no answers. Spearheaded by Kiki Jefferson, who scored eight of her 21 points in the second quarter, the Cardinals opened the first three and a half minutes of the second on a 10-0 run, taking a 24-21 lead. Saniaa Wilson got the Orange back on the board after a post-up bucket, but SU followed with another two-minute scoring drought.

After a layup from Rickards gave the Cardinals a 30-23 lead, Fair was again blitzed by Louisville’s defense. But like she had early in the first quarter, Fair sliced through the pressure to find Woolley, who drained a 3. Syracuse responded with a defensive stop and got the ball ahead to Fair, who went coast-to-coast to bring the Orange within two.

Fair worked her way to the free throw line on SU’s next possession, and after a 1-for-5 first quarter from the line, she split the attempts.

Despite only 19.2% of its points coming from 3, the 329th lowest in Division I, Sydney Taylor hurt the Orange from distance. Taylor, a 28.2% shooter from deep entering the matchup with SU, drilled a catch-and-shoot triple from the left wing giving Louisville a four-point lead.

Fair tried responding with a 3 on the other end, but missed off the back iron as Louisville rebounded the ball and quickly pushed it up the floor. From nearly the same spot, Taylor drained another catch-and-shoot attempt, quickly erasing the Orange’s 6-0 run.

Since Fair’s layup 3:45 before halftime cut Louisville’s lead to two, the Orange remained without a field goal until Fair drove in for a last-second layup before halftime, cutting the Cardinals’ lead to 40-36.

“I thought we did a really good job of trying to slow (Fair) down,” Walz said.

On their first five possessions of the third quarter, the Orange turned the ball over once while missing all four of their shots from the field. Louisville then scored the first four points of the third quarter, but then SU received much-needed scoring from Rice. In the first half, Rice — Syracuse’s third-leading scorer — was 0-for-5 from the field, but she drilled a 3, cutting Louisville’s lead down to seven.

A minute later, Woolley found herself open and made a wide-open 3 to bring the Orange within six, but Rickards immediately pushed the pace and scored on a drive. Fair missed on the other end, but after a Woolley steal and Wilson offensive rebound, SU got the ball to Rice in the corner and she drilled her second 3 to bring Syracuse within five.

Despite their success from 3, the Orange were 0-for-7 from inside the arc to begin the third, often settling for Louisville’s bait in the mid-range. Over the last five minutes of the third, Syracuse was held to four points on 0-for-5 shooting from the field and 4-for-8 shooting from the free throw line, facing a 60-47 deficit after three quarters.

A hustle defensive play from Woolley ignited a Louisville turnover to open the fourth quarter, and Fair canned a 3 off a jab step to bring SU within 10. The Orange had two chances to cut Louisville’s lead to single digits, but Fair, Woolley and Rice all couldn’t connect on jumpers.

Louisville also struggled to begin the fourth, being held scoreless for the first nearly four minutes, but SU couldn’t cut into the deficit. Woolley went 1-for-2 from the free throw line three minutes into the final frame, but the Orange’s next score didn’t come for another two and a half minutes, still trailing by 10.

Syracuse had back-to-back impressive come-from-behind wins against Clemson and then-No. 15 Florida State in January, but it didn’t have a late run in it to comeback against the Cardinals on the road, falling by double digits despite Fair scoring 13 points in the final period.

“Most importantly, we (adjusted) how we wanted to play defense against (Syracuse), get them a little confused, because we did go into matchup zone toward the end of the game instead of staying in man,” Harris said postgame.

Published on February 1, 2024 at 9:23 pm

Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon