University of Louisville
SYRACUSE
Cardinals Fall to the Orange 64-58
January 23, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 23, 2010
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Louisville, Ky. - The University of Louisville women's basketball team fell 64-58 to the Syracuse Orange on Saturday afternoon in Freedom Hall falling to 10-9 overall and 2-4 in BIG EAST play. The Cardinals had three players score in double figures, led by Becky Burke with a career-high 24 points. Shelby Harper scored 11 points and Keshia Hines contributed 10 points and nine rebounds before both of them fouled out in the game.
Syracuse was led in scoring by Erica Morrow with 23 points and eight rebounds. Nicole Michael scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds. The Orange improve to 16-3 overall and 3-3 in the BIG EAST.
Louisville came out of the gates slow to start the game finding themselves in a 7-2 hole early on in the half, before going on a 10-0 run to take a 12-7 lead. The run was capped off with back-to-back 3-pointers from Harper, before the Orange finally ended the run with a jumper from Morrow after going three minutes without scoring.
The Cardinals first 18 points came from Burke and Harper, with both of them hitting two 3-pointers during the first 10 minutes of the half before Laura Terry scored on a lay-up that gave Louisville a 20-16 lead.
Syracuse went on a 10-0 run over a three minute span where they saw their biggest lead at that point grow to 28-20, until Asia Taylor ended the drought with a pair of free throws. The Cardinals got as close as four after that, but the Orange went on a 9-3 run to build their largest lead of the half at 37-27. The Cardinals got a jumper from Hines and Burke to cut the lead to 37-31 to end the half.
Louisville finished the first half shooting 30.6 percent from the floor, while Syracuse shot 52.0 percent. The Cardinals were outrebounded in the half 21-18 by the Orange.
The Cardinals came out in the second half with much more urgency than they did to start the game by going on a 6-0 run to tie the score up at 37-37. Louisville took back the lead at the 16:01 mark off a three-point play from Burke. They built that lead up to three on two occasions during the half off lay-ups from Hines.
Louisville allowed Syracuse to go on a 7-0 run to take back the lead at the 9:45 mark off a 3-pointer from Morrow and never relinquished the lead the rest of the game. During the run, the Orange built up the lead to four before Hines scored her third straight basket for the Cardinals, cutting the lead to 51-49 at the 8:46 mark.
At the 5:36 mark, head coach Quentin Hillsman for the Orange collapsed to the ground and had to be attended to by the medical staff. He was able to be helped up to his feet, but left the court and did not return for the rest of the game. Assistant coach Rick Moody finished up the game for Syracuse.
After the basket from Hines, the Cardinals didn't score again for four minutes until Monique Reid scored on a lay-up at the 4:43 mark. The scoring went back and forth the rest of the way, until Louisville started trapping the Orange and came away with steals to cut it to 63-58 with 0:37 left in the game off two free throws from Burke.
The Cardinals had chances to cut even more into the lead with two misses from the free throw line on one-and-ones from the Orange, but Louisville could not find a way to capitalize and time ran out on them.
Louisville finished the game shooting 30.0 percent from the floor, while Syracuse shot 44.4 percent. The Cardinals outrebounded the Orange 41-40, after being outrebounded in the first half. Reid's 15 rebounds were a career-high for her and a team-high this season. Louisville committed only 14 turnovers, which was a season-low for the Cardinals.
The Cardinals will be back in action in Freedom Hall on Jan. 26 facing BIG EAST opponent Villanova at 7:00 p.m.
