By Gabriel Wiest —

Coming off wins against UConn and Clemson, No. 2 women’s basketball maintained an eight-game winning streak with a 76-51 victory over No. 15 Syracuse. Louisville is now 22-1 overall this season and 9-1 in ACC play.

Luckily for the Cardinals, Florida State defeated NC State while Louisville topped Syracuse. The second conference loss for the Wolfpack places U of L atop the ACC by themselves for the first time this season.

The Cards brought immediate intensity against the Orange, asserting their dominance with a 13-point lead by the end of the first quarter. Junior Bionca Dunham assisted senior Asia Durr for a three-pointer as the clock wound down, making the score 30-17.

Durr, previously named Player of the Week by espnW, finished the night leading all scorers with 15 points. Sophomore Dana Evans scored 12 points and junior Kylee Shook scored 11 points, well above her 6.4 season average.

“At half time when we had our speech, he told me I was lacking effort today and to pick myself up. That’s what I did the second [half] and I gave it my all,” Shook said.

Quentin Hillsman, Syracuse head coach, gave credit to Louisville for taking advantage of opportunities with talent.

“We had 17 turnovers and they had 25 points off of turnovers. That is very efficient. It was tough,” Hillsman said. “I don’t think we were sluggish I think it was them being really good.”

Louisville head coach Jeff Walz acknowledged his opponent while saying his team needs to keep up the hard work.

“They’re a good basketball team, it’s a team that was ranked 15th,” Walz said. “We played really well and that’s the thing. Offensively we have been really good all week. Our tempo has been great. That’s what we have to continue to do, keep our tempo up.

Next up, women’s basketball travels to face Virginia Tech on Sunday, Feb. 10 at noon.

 

 

 

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Photos by Jessica Abell and Gabriel Wiest / The Louisville Cardinal