By Harry Barsan

Louisville defeats the Syracuse Orange in an 85-61 drubbing, nearly winning wire-to-wire.

After receiving some votes in the AP poll but just missing out, the Cards may have been playing with a chip or two on their shoulder. Their 24-point victory is their largest since they scored 100 against Indiana in the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Lights Out

Syracuse caught the lead twice early on with 0-2 and 3-4 leads, but wouldn’t regain control for the rest of the game.

Louisville then started their onslaught with a 10-0 Cardinals run, kicked off by a Noah Waterman dunk.

Louisville stalled out on some possessions, committing a few unfortunate turnovers. During these stretches, the Orange put together runs of 6-0 and 7-0, getting back into the game with both runs.

After the Orange to came within striking distance, the Cards responded with an eruption. Renye Smith cashed a four-point play, then Chucky Hepburn nailed a three-pointer of his own as the Cards took a 28-17 with eight minutes to spare.

The Cards would knock down five more threes to end the half as they took a 43-27 lead into halftime.

They shot a dazzling 8-of-16 from deep in the first half alone, one of their best marks of the year.

Victory lap

Outside of the two runs Syracuse strung together, Louisville outscored the Orange 43-14 in the first. That would be much more of the trend for the final 20 minutes.

Louisville applied more pressure as Smith nailed his third three of the game from nearly logo-distance. The lead ballooned as buckets from Hepburn and Terrence Edwards Jr. made it 55-34.

The rest of the game was pretty straightforward, highlighted by solid shooting and strong defense.

Arguably the most interesting part if the second half was the Cards’ continued efforts to try and get the former Syracuse player, Frank Anselem-Ibe, an ally-oop dunk. The big man was close on several attempts, but came up short every time.

As the bench checked in during garbage time, a dominant performance nearly all the way and a much more refined shooting night led to an 85-61 victory for Louisville.

Peaking

The Cardinal defense was more than enough to stymie a declining Syracuse offense. Much of the Orange’s deep balls came surprisingly off the hands of Syracuse’s Chris Bell, who made four of the team’s eight threes despite averaging 26.2% from deep this year.

Besides Bell, only two Syracuse players scored over 10 points, and none made more than five field goals total. Louisville held Cuse as a team to a woeful 40% from the field.

For Louisville, all five starters recorded double-digit points tonight, led by Hepburn’s 24 points.

With his six threes in total and seven assists to go along, it makes this one of his best games of the year.

J’Vonne Hadley had a nice night, just barely getting his 10th rebound with a few minutes to spare for yet another double-double. He matched his 10 rebounds with 13 points on a solid 6-of-11 from the field.

James Scott and Smith both notched 10, while Edwards rounded out the bunch with 16 of his own.

This win makes it seven-straight for the Cardinals for the first time since the 2019-20 season. This is also the first time the Cards have won at Syracuse since 2017.

Louisville improves to 13-5 on the year and 6-1 in the ACC.

With Louisville firing on all cylinders the past few weeks, the Cards have their eyes set on Virginia for this Saturday at noon at the KFC Yum! Center.

Photo Courtesy // Mallory Peak, Louisville Athletics