SU’s win streak is reset after loss to No. 6 Louisville

Heading into Super Bowl Sunday with a 19-4 record, the one blemish on Syracuse women’s basketball’s record was that it had not beaten a ranked opponent. It had the chance to rectify that in a matchup with No. 6 Louisville. 

Instead, SU’s struggles against ranked opponents continued. The Orange fell to the Cardinal 84-65 at home on Sunday afternoon. The loss snapped Syracuse’s three-game winning streak and dropped its record to 19-5 on the season.

Early on, SU struggled with the ball pressure of Louisville, which took them out of its offensive flow. The Orange went down 22 points early on, and defensively, had zero answer for the Cardinal inside. 

It led to Louisville center Laura Ziegler finishing with 22 points and Mackenly Randolph with 15. Both players did most of their damage inside, a big reason why the Cardinal finished with 42 points in the paint.

Head coach Felicia Legette-Jack said the nerves got to her squad early and that led to them fighting an uphill battle all game.

“Of course you’re going to have that,” Legette-Jack said. “You see the number six next to somebody’s name, you’re going to have that. They are kids at the end of the day, they’re going to want to show that they are the best.”

However, the Orange rode a huge second quarter, outsourcing the Cardinal 30-16 to get within eight points at halftime. They got as close as five points early in the third quarter, but Louisville extended its lead back to double-digits and SU could not recover. Though, Legette-Jack was proud of the performance her team showed in this one.

“I liked our energy and our fight today,” Legette-Jack said. “We came back there, but they hit big shots down the stretch and the bottom fell out on us.”

Dominique Darius led the way for SU with 22 points and hit all seven of her shots. The graduate student struggled with turnovers, as she had eight miscues, but Legette-Jack said she wants her guard to still play with freedom.

“You don’t do anything different but giving her the freedom to become,” Legette-Jack said. “She’s always going to have my full support.”

Outside of Darius and freshman center Uche Izoje, who had 13 points of her own, the Orange struggled mightily on offense. Leila Phelia and Sophie Burrows combined for just 6-27 from the field, and 1-11 from three-point range. 

The Cardinal made it a point of emphasis to slow the two guards down, but Burrows thinks most of their mistakes were self-inflicted.

“We didn’t come out and throw the first punch,” The junior guard said. “We need to come out from the start playing Syracuse basketball, which is what we need to do against these great teams.”

The Orange hit the road on Thursday to face Pittsburgh, followed by a home matchup on Sunday against Clemson.