Syracuse blown out at home by Louisville

Syracuse's two game winning streak was snapped in a blowout loss to Louisville in the JMA Wireless Dome Tuesday night. It was the same story different night with a Syracuse team who could not get enough on offense, and gave up too much on defense, final score; 85-61. It was the seventh straight win for the Cardinals. This game puts the Orange under .500 moving them to 8-9 ( 2-4) on the season, and snaps a four game winning streak against the Cardinals. Next up is Notre Dame in the Dome on Saturday, January 18th. The game will be broadcast on the ACC Network. 

The Orange defense was solid for the first four minutes of the game, holding Louisville to just 2-7 shooting. In fact, the Cardinals would make just five of its first 16 shots. Syracuse, though, could not take advantage offensively and Louisville eventually started to see shots fall. The Cardinals had shot a whopping 12 for 28 from deep led by six makes from Chucky Hepburn. 

"We fouled a three-point shooter, and I thought from there on their momentum just kind of carried," said Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry. 

The Cardinals also shot 50% from the field overall despite that cold start. 

JJ Starling struggled from the field in this contest finishing with four points on 1-7 shooting, four assists, and six turnovers. 

"They did a good job on JJ and if JJ scores four points and stuff like that, we are going to have a tough time trying to win," said coach Autry. "That's hard to overcome when they do a good job on JJ." 

But Starling wasn't the only one that struggled the offense again failing to eclipse 30 points in the first half, shot 8-25 on threes and 8-16 on layups. The Orange also gave up fourteen turnovers as a team leading to 17 points for the Cardinals. 

"We didn't take care of the ball like we wanted to. Too many unforced turnovers," said coach Autry. 

Another drought led to problems going into the half for the Orange. Not scoring in the last five minutes of the half and giving up a 12-0 run saw the Cardinals up 43-27. 

"Regardless of what is going on we have to keep competing, naturally everybody is human so it can definitely be demoralizing. But we have to do a better job just when the other teams are going on their runs, believing and trusting that we can go and run the same way… It's a form of toughness, mental toughness," said Jyaire Davis. 

In the second half the Orange found a way to shoot better at 46% up from the 34% in the first half but Louisville continued to torch the Syracuse defense. Never allowing the Orange to close the gap, the Cardinals shot 58% in the second half. 

If there is any consolation in the loss for the Orange it was that Chris Bell found his shot.

"Of course I want to shoot to get the lead back, but I just shoot what the defense gives me and not do too much," said Bell. "Just trying to find myself in the offense, coming off the bench being aggressive."

Also while Donnie Freeman may not have fixed all of the issues tonight his return is on the cusp as tonight he was upgraded to day-to-day. This was Freeman's third missed contest in a row. 

Sometimes stats feel empty in a loss, nonetheless Eddie Lampkin notched his third straight double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. While Lampkin vehemently disagreed that physicality was an issue for the Orange, he did believe that giving up eight offensive rebounds was a contributing factor in the loss.