LOUISVILLE, Ky. — To put an exclamation point on its excavation of the Syracuse zone, Louisville staged a pseudo dunk contest as the game wound down.

First, Trey Lewis dipped into the paint and lobbed an alley-oop that Jaylen Johnson threw down one-handed. A play later, Lewis stopped just inside halfcourt and tossed another lob that Donovan Mitchell met well above the rim and dunked even harder than Johnson.

Mitchell’s finish stretched the No. 18 Cardinals’ (20-6, 9-4 Atlantic Coast) lead to 17 with just over four minutes left before the hosts coasted to a 72-58 win over the Orange (18-9, 8-6) at the KFC Yum! Center on Wednesday night. The dunks kept coming after the back-to-back alley-oops, and a team and crowd wounded by a self-imposed postseason ban announced earlier this month was offered a one-night relief from the bigger picture.

The Cardinals came out slow, but seized a second-half lead by pounding the ball inside and crashing the offensive glass. Louisville finished with 50 points in the paint to the Orange’s 20, and its balanced attack was simply too much for the SU zone to handle for 40 minutes. The loss snaps a five-game win streak for Syracuse, and improves Louisville to 16-1 at home this season.

“It was just a tough night overall, with everything,” SU forward Tyler Roberson said. “In the first half I think we played pretty well and the second half I think we just broke down, basically.”

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MORE COVERAGE:

• What we learned from Syracuse basketball’s 72-58 loss to No. 18 Louisville
• Watch Jim Boeheim’s press conference after Syracuse falls to No. 18 Louisville
• Gallery: Check out the best photos from Syracuse-Louisville

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After Syracuse and Louisville played lackluster first halves, the Cardinals built a permanent lead around the basket. Then Syracuse went with its “small lineup,” with four guards around undersized center Tyler Lydon, and the Cardinals started burning the Orange from deep.

Damion Lee hit three 3s on his own to help Louisville build a 49-40 lead with 11:50 left. After the third, he stood in front of the Cardinals bench with his follow-through straight up in the air. The defense that had been the backbone of SU’s five-game win streak, and 8-2 stretch since Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim’s return from suspension, was ripping at the seams.

In the second half alone, Louisville gathered eight offensive rebounds, scored 13 second-chance points and 34 points in the paint. Syracuse scored 31 total points in the second-half. Chinanu Onuaku — the younger brother of former Syracuse center Arinze Onuaku — was SU’s toughest matchup inside and finished with 13 points, 15 rebounds (seven of which were offensive) and four assists.

With any chance of a comeback slipping through the Orange’s fingers, Onuaku caught the ball on the left block, backed down Lydon and deftly bounced a no-look pass behind his back for a Trey Lewis layup that bumped Louisville’s lead to 16 with 8:45 to go.

“We forced them to take a little bit tougher shots in the first half and they missed that in-between shot,” Boeheim said. “… In the second half they really still missed it, but they got it back. That was probably the difference.”

 

Luke Rafferty | Staff Photographer

 

Last February, Syracuse had self-imposed a postseason ban and upset No. 12 Louisville at home. It stood as the Orange’s best win of the year but was really just another hollow result in a forfeited season. A means to an end. A marginal dent on Louisville’s Tournament resume that still allowed the Cardinals to finish one win shy of the Final Four.

And now, 364 days later, the scripts are completely flipped and Louisville returned the favor.

Then it was Syracuse’s Rakeem Christmas, whose senior season was dashed by a self-imposed ban, scoring 29 points to push Syracuse past the Cardinals. Now it was Damion Lee and Trey Lewis, the Louisville fifth-year seniors whose careers will be cut short, combining for 29 points while creating space in the middle of the Orange zone.

This time, Louisville was the team playing for everything and nothing all at once, and SU learned how dangerous a combination that can be.

“It was just a bunch of different things,” said Lydon of what did the Orange in. “Just not making the right rotations on defense, getting offensive rebounds, it was just a mixture of things.”

Published on February 17, 2016 at 9:00 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse