After nearly tying second-place Louisville in the first half, Syracuse basketball stumbled against the Cardinals in an 85-61 home-court loss at the JMA Wireless Dome.
18 points from Chris Bell and a third consecutive double-double from Eddie Lampkin wasn’t nearly enough to face the red-hot Cardinals. After Syracuse closed a first-half gap from double digits to four points, Louisville’s 3-point shooting 34 points in the paint created a relentless 24-point deficit.
There was no hope of a three-game ACC win streak for the Orange. Instead, Louisville extended an ACC streak of its own to six games, now having won its last seven games.
Here are three takeaways from the Orange’s 85-61 loss to the Cardinals.
Takeaway #1: Starling silenced
For the first time all season, Syracuse’s top scorer didn’t reach double figures.
JJ Starling has been averaging nearly 20 points per game this season. Yet, he couldn’t buy a bucket against the Cardinals if he tried. The shooting guard was held scoreless in the first half, and half only scored four points halfway through the second frame.
Starling finished the game with four points, had four assists and six turnovers.
“This is the first time I felt like I personally got punked,” Starling said. “So I don’t ever want to have this feeling ever again.”
Syracuse averages 76 points per game. Starling makes up for a quarter of that production.
And the Cardinals just showed the rest of the ACC how to eliminate the Orange’s top performer on the scoring report.
Louisville’s defense limited Starling to just passing the ball, but even that was less-than-stellar for him. Head coach Adrian Autry said after Starling was closed off as an option, the Orange tried to shift to send the ball into the paint. Louisville negated that, too.
“We just couldn’t get the ball inside,” Autry said. “There was a deflection or they just couldn’t get in the right position. Every time they got it … they pushed us out.”
Takeaway #2: It’s not just Smith from three
There’s a reason Reyne Smith leads the ACC in made triples this season, but Chucky Hepburn could’ve fooled fans inside the dome.
Louisville finished the game making 12 3-pointers against the Orange. Nine of them came from either Smith or Hepburn, though Hepburn had the majority.
“We kind of knew what Smith was like,” Jaquan Carlos said. “My job was just to deny him and make those other guys play, and I think Chucky stepped up and made great plays.”
When Hepburn had a clean look from long distance, he took it. Most of the time, it went in — and cleanly at that. With four minutes to go in the first half, Hepburn dropped back-to-back triples to cut off a 7-0 Syracuse run and extend Louisville’s lead to 10.
Hepburn was 5-of-7 from downtown in the first half, Smith following suit shooting 2-for-5. Smith nailed his third triple of the game in Louisville’s first possession of the second half.
“Guys have very quick releases,” Carlos said. “Guys play fast at this level, and Louisville, they run it off the inbound to try and get shots.”
Takeaway #3: Under .500 now
Syracuse is halfway through its second regular season under Autry and is sitting under .500, a drop from the 11-5 record the Orange had exactly one year ago.
“It’s always disappointing being below .500,” Autry said. “You’ve just got to keep fighting and keep battling each day. You’ve got to get better — we have to get better. And it’s been like that the whole year.”
Year two of the Autry era hasn’t been perfect, Autry is one of the first people to admit that. There have been player injuries — Starling’s absence for one, and there’s no update on Donnie Freeman’s status either — have left the Orange without their original starting give for 11 games. Autry’s pushed Syracuse to play a faster game, trying to average more possessions per game, too.
A handful of players from last year’s squad transferred, placing most of the returners in new leadership roles, both seen and unseen by fans.
It’s a lot of change from year one to year two, and there’s still two months of basketball to play. Syracuse has its issues, and working through them all have taken longer than Autry and the Orange anticipated.
However, there’s still two months of basketball to play. Syracuse will soon start its rematch games, the first one being Notre Dame on Jan. 18. The Orange have opportunities to correct previous errors.
Not every problem can be solved in one season, but at least the Orange can try to tackle a few while there’s still time left on the regular season.
“The season’s not over yet,” Autry said. “We’ve still got a lot of games left, and that’s how we’re going to attack it.”
Up next for Syracuse (8-9, 2-4): vs. Notre Dame (8-9, 2-4) – Jan. 18 at 4 p.m.
Up next for Louisville (13-5, 6-1): vs. Virginia (8-8, 1-4) – Jan. 18 at Noon
[…] time out, the Orange saw their two-game win streak get snapped, as they got dominated by Louisville in the JMA Dome, 85-61. The two-game win streak included a win at home over Georgia Tech and on the […]