LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Syracuse fell behind at Louisville during the first half and never fully recovered, losing for the fourth time in its last five games. The No. 7 Cardinals (23-6, 11-5 Atlantic Coast) took down Syracuse (17-13, 9-8), 88-68, on Sunday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Louisville’s defense crushed Syracuse again

The last time these teams played, on Feb. 13 in the Carrier Dome, Syracuse missed 25 3-pointers going 8-for-33 from behind the arc. The Orange once again struggled from deep and failed to get effective dribble penetration. In the first half, SU missed 11 3-pointers. Louisville’s matchup zone defense forced Syracuse into 10 first-half turnovers.

Syracuse’s lone bright spot early on was Tyus Battle, who opened the game 5-for-9 from the field. But only two other players, Tyler Lydon (nine points) and Taurean Thompson (two points) scored before halftime.

In the second half, the Orange’s struggles continued. They weren’t as profound as early on, but SU shot 35.7 percent from the field, a number that wasn’t even close to lifting the Orange to victory.

Grad transfers go dark

Syracuse’s two grad transfers, Andrew White and John Gillon, struggled to get anything going against the Cardinals. They’ve both carried the Orange at times this season, but neither scored a single point in the first half. White is SU’s leading scorer with 17.5 points per game. Gillon hit a game-winning buzzer-beating 3 to take down Duke on Wednesday night.

Neither White nor Gillon found the basket nearly enough on Sunday. After the Orange beat Duke, SU head coach Jim Boeheim said his team goes as Gillon goes. White, by a similar measure, has bailed out Syracuse all season when its offense stagnates. He’d only scored in single digits twice this season entering the matchup against Louisville and has now done that twice in the past week.

Gillon got going in the second half after being held scoreless in the first half, but it still wasn’t enough. He finished with 10 points, three assists and three turnovers.

White, meanwhile, finished with seven points on 3-of-10 from the field. He drew a foul while driving baseline with 10 minutes left but missed the front end of a one-and-one. His first points came a minute later when he dropped in a layup after a Taurean Thompson offensive rebound.

Orange beat on the glass again

SU got beat on the boards for the second time against Louisville this season. The Cardinals entered the contest as the second best offensive rebounding team in the ACC, averaging 13.5 per game. The Cardinals hauled in 13 offensive boards and scored 15 second-chance points off them.

The Orange has been beat on the glass all season, but in a game its offense couldn’t get anything going, SU couldn’t afford to lose the rebounding battle as well.

Tyler Roberson, Syracuse’s best rebounder, recorded a plus-one plus-minus, but he only played for 19 minutes against the Cardinals. Tyler Lydon led SU in the rebounding department with 10, but it wasn’t enough to carry the load against a lengthy UofL team.

Published on February 26, 2017 at 4:16 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds