Syracuse drops to .500 after 77-62 loss at Louisville

The Syracuse Orange (15-15, 6-11) dropped their fourth straight game, losing 77-62 at the #24 Louisville Cardinals (21-9, 10-7).

Nait George led Syracuse with 16 points on 5-13 shooting. Nate Kingz was the most efficient player with 14 points and 6 rebounds. Sadiq White had another strong game with 8 points off the bench while Donnie Freeman had a double-double on 3-11 shooting.

It was an ugly start as both teams were sloppy with the ball and quick to force shots. We hit the first media timeout with the score 2-2. The Cardinals were the first team to get their offense going as Ryan Conwell (2) and Isaac McNeeley (1) hit 3s against the zone that Syracuse went to with Kiyan Anthony, Tyler Betsey and Sadiq White on the floor.

Adrian Autry continued to grasp at lineup straws while the Cardinals ran out to a 21-10 lead. We got a lineup of Bryce Zephir, JJ Starling, Betsey, White and William Kyle. White was the one Orange player who looked to be ready to play tonight and so of course he got pulled after scoring 6 of Syracuse’s 14 points.

McNeeley hit a wide-open 3 to make it 32-16 and Autry called a timeout with 4:58 in the half. At this point, the Orange were 0-8 from 3 with several bricks and on the defensive end they let Louisville get clean looks. The Duke and Iowa State games took over 20 minutes to become embarrassing but tonight got there in the first half. To add injury to the insult, White went down hard in the final minute of the half, though he did return.

Louisville led 39-21 at the half as the Syracuse starters were a combined 3-18 from the field and the Orange as a team were 0-11 from 3. The one bright spot was 7-9 from the foul line, but Louisville enjoyed a 23-14 rebounding edge and forced 7 Syracuse turnovers.

The second half so a bit better offense from Syracuse, but Louisville’s shooting kept them comfortably ahead for the first 10 minutes. Adrian Wooley’s 3 made it 60-38 but the Orange found some heart and went on a 9-0 run in the next two minutes, punctuated by a Kyle block leading to a White dunk and a timeout from Pat Kelsey.

Syracuse had a couple of chances to get the lead into single digits, but couldn’t and then McNeeley and Conwell hit from deep again and the Cardinals were back up 69-53 putting any hopes of a comeback to bed.

Louisville shot 14-35 from 3 for the game while the Orange were only able to muster a 4-19 performance. The Cardinals won the rebounding battle 37-35 and Syracuse only committed 4 second-half turnovers but dug a hole too big to climb out of in the YUM! Center.

Syracuse closes out the regular season on Saturday when they host the Pitt Panthers. It might be the final Dome game for a lot of people associated with the program, but we know it’s the last one for JJ Starling and William Kyle. Tip is at 4:30 pm on The CW.