Syracuse beats No. 5 Louisville 59-51

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Kiara Lewis scored 24 points, and Syracuse shut down No. 5 Louisville for a 59-51 win on Sunday.

Syracuse (12-11, 6-6 Atlantic Coast Conference), which beat Boston College on Thursday night, gave coach Quentin Hillsman his 300th career win.

Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi had 12 points for the Orange, and Emily Engstler finished with eight points and nine rebounds.

Louisville (21-3 10-2) was coming off a 67-59 home loss to No. 17 Florida State on Thursday night. The Cardinals shot 34.4% against the Seminoles, and had similar trouble against the Orange.

Louisville dropped to 20-2 in conference road games the past three seasons, with the only other loss coming against No. 1 Notre Dame just over a year ago. The Cardinals had not lost back-to-back games since February 2017.

Jazmine Jones led Louisville with 15 points. Dana Evans had 13 points on 4-of-17 shooting, and Kylee Shook had five points and 13 rebounds.

Louisville, which entered the game leading the ACC in shooting at 45.7%, finished 19 of 54 for 35.2% in its lowest scoring game of the season.

After Evans hit a 3 to tie it at 15 early in the second, the Orange closed the period with a 15-5 run for a 30-20 halftime lead. Lewis started the key stretch with a 3 from the top of the key and finished it with a floater in the lane at the buzzer.

The Cardinals got 3s from Evans and Jessica Laemmie to close to 30-26 early in the third, but Lewis responded for the Orange. After Bionca Dunham hit a jumper to trim Syracuse’s lead to 34-30, Lewis countered with a driving layup through traffic. When Jones converted a follow, Lewis responded with a 3 from the top of the key at the shot-clock buzzer and her layup in the final minute gave the Orange a 41-32 lead heading to the fourth quarter.

TOUGH START

In the first five minutes of play, the teams combined to shoot 3 of 13 with 10 turnovers. They settled down to make nine of next 15 shots as the Orange led 15-12 after one.

BIG PICTURE

Louisville: Louisville entered the game leading the ACC at 16.4 assists per game and was second in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.17. The Cardinals finished with nine assists and 22 turnovers and committed 24 personal fouls to 14 for the Orange.

Syracuse: The Orange are 3-5 against nationally ranked teams this season, including a 62-58 loss to the Cardinals to open conference play in late December.

UP NEXT

Louisville: Travels to North Carolina State on Thursday night.

Syracuse: Travels to North Carolina on Thursday night.