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Payton Verhulst was wide-open when she called for the ball in the left corner. Louisville controlled the ball on the right side of the arc, and Syracuse’s 2-3 zone shifted to contain the Cardinals in that respective corner. But Hailey Van Lith easily sent the ball over the Syracuse defense to that left corner, giving Verhulst an easy look from 3.

Najé Murray, Syracuse’s closest defender, sprinted over and jumped as high as she could to swat the ball away but couldn’t get a hand on it. Verhulst’s shot gave Louisville a 30-17 lead to end the first quarter.

It was a play that summed up how Louisville defeated Syracuse on Sunday. The Cardinals hit their shots, relied on their size and used their depth to easily handle a smaller Orange team that couldn’t replicate its opposition — and got blown out in the process.

No. 4 Louisville (21-2, 11-1 Atlantic Coast) completed its season sweep over Syracuse (9-12, 2-9 ACC) with a 100-64 win at the Carrier Dome. While the Orange shot nearly 45% from the field after the first half, its shooting deteriorated in the latter stages of the game, and it couldn’t keep up with Louisville.

Syracuse continued to shoot the ball the way it had in recent games, including its January matchup against Louisville. At the half, the Orange were sitting just below 45% from the field.

“In the first quarter, they were really outrunning us, and that was their goal,” acting head coach Vonn Read said. “I thought we did a good job in the second quarter getting back and stopping them, stopping them from making transitions and make them score in the half court.”

Louisville committed two turnovers in the opening minutes of the second quarter, which led to a 5-0 run for Syracuse. Chrislyn Carr stole the ball at center court and sent Najé Murray in transition for a layup. Then Mykasa Robinson was called for a five-second violation ahead of a Louisville inbound pass. After a missed 3 from Christianna Carr, the ball was rebounded by the Orange and worked from Chrislyn to Murray for a 3-pointer, pulling SU within eight points.

“Najé was hot at that time,” Chrislyn said. “Giving her the ball in those moments — we stopped doing that in the third quarter — but we have to keep trusting in each other even when we’re tired.”

Louisville stayed hot from the field, but Syracuse never let up, keeping the difference within 10 points for the majority of the half. The game was a back-and-forth shooting contest in the first half — like it was the last time the two teams played. The closest the Orange would tighten its deficit against Louisville was after a 9-4 run just before halftime.

SU took its only lead at the end of the third quarter in January by excelling at what it does best: hitting 3s. The Orange made three consecutive ones that led to it taking a one-point lead.

Late in the second quarter, Alaysia Styles hit a 3-pointer from the right wing, and on Louisville’s next possession, Chrislyn picked up a loose ball off a Van Lith 3-pointer. She dribbled out of Syracuse’s zone and hit Teisha Hyman inside the paint with a long pass for a layup. On the ensuing possession, Syracuse worked the ball around to Chrislyn, who hit a 3 that brought the Orange within nine.

That, though, was the closest Syracuse would come to pulling off a comeback. The Orange made half of their 3s at halftime, but Louisville was better, shooting 57.1%.

In the second half, though, Syracuse would not come close to matching those numbers, and its already increasing deficit got out of reach very quickly. In the third quarter, SU missed all seven of its shots from deep and was down nearly 20 points heading into the final quarter. After nearly breaking 50% shooting from the field, the Orange’s shooting rate diminished to an underwhelming 33%, while Louisville shot 53% from the field, making 19 second-half shots to the Orange’s eight.

“They’ve got some really good players inside and out,” Read said. “I thought in spurts we did a really good job, but again, transition points, second-chance points, they had 32 so it’s really hard for us to combat that.”

Louisville’s second-half shots came mostly from outside rather than in the paint, as former SU forward Emily Engstler recorded her fourth personal foul of the game early in the third quarter. But Engstler still recorded the Cardinals’ second-most rebounds with 10. Engstler had already recorded seven rebounds midway through the second quarter, which was as many as Syracuse had as a team.

Louisville used its size advantage to help shut down SU’s offense. Courtesy of Dennis Nett | Syracuse.com

Engstler also made her mark on defense. Foul trouble limited her aggressiveness in the paint, but Engstler, the country’s 36th-best blocker, per Her Hoop Stats, recorded four blocks and three steals in just over 20 minutes of game action. Despite her limited action, she was still the only player on the court to record a double-double.

Louisville more than doubled Syracuse’s 22 points in the paint from January, and the Orange were outscored in the paint by 40 points on Sunday. The Cardinals finished with nearly as many points inside as Syracuse had total, recording 60.

Early in the third quarter, Hyman drove inside on Engstler, dribbling past her but missed the layup. The rebound was picked up by Olivia Cochran, who found Van Lith inside. Van Lith made her layup and was awarded an and-1 on the play after being fouled by Christianna.

In the fourth quarter, the Orange’s typical fatigue set in, as Louisville nearly doubled the Orange’s field-goal attempts. Similar to its final quarter 19-7 run in January, the Cardinals used a 9-0 run even while up 30 points to break the 100-point mark via back-to-back field goals from Robinson.

It was the easy victory Louisville was looking for after nearly being upset the last time they faced the Orange, as Syracuse again suffered a loss to a team that simply outmatched it on both sides of the ball.

“The score got away from us,” Read said. “We just struggled to compete on the boards there and they scored 65 points in the paint, so I just got to find a better way to help them.”

Published on February 6, 2022 at 2:12 pm

Contact Alex: ahcirino@syr.edu