GREENSBORO, N.C. — Digna Strautmane reached her right arm out to close down Louisville point guard Dana Evans, then turned her head to Kiara Lewis. In the split-second Strautmane took to gesture toward Lewis to switch — Lewis was on the 6-foot-2 Bionca Dunham — Evans stepped back and drilled her fifth 3-pointer of the game, one that extended the Cardinals lead to 26, its largest of the afternoon. 

After an Amaya Finklea-Guity and-one, Evans sliced through SU’s full-court press and brought the ball into the frontcourt. This time, Gabrielle Cooper shoved a hand in her face, but it didn’t matter. Evans passed to Jazmine Jones on the right wing, Cooper slid left and Jones dished right back to Evans. Again, Evans’ quick trigger was lethal. The ACC player of the year sunk her second long ball in as many possessions, burying the Orange even further.

“We came out and we were trying to get our defense set,” Hillsman said. “And every time we were in the zone, we would get off (Evans) and she would shoot the three.”

Evans’ 23 points and six 3-pointers led the Cardinals in No. 8-seed Syracuse’s (16-16, 9-9 Atlantic Coast) 71-46 blowout loss to No. 1-seed Louisville (28-3, 16-2) in the ACC tournament quarterfinals on Friday afternoon at the Greensboro Coliseum. The defeat confirms the Orange will not reach the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2012. SU posted one of its worst offensive performances of the year, shooting 27% (17-for-63) from the field. But it was Evans and the Cardinals’ aggressive, efficient play that proved how big the gap between the two teams is, something that wasn’t apparent in their two regular season meetings. 

Syracuse’s 59-51 victory over then-No. 5 Louisville at the Carrier Dome on Feb. 9 gave Hillsman and SU hope it could win the ACC tournament. After the Orange’s loss to Boston College in the final game of the regular season, Hillsman said, “We’ve beaten the top teams in this conference, so we gotta go down there and play that way.” 

Since Syracuse beat Louisville, the Cardinals haven’t lost a game. While Syracuse entered the conference tournament on a three-game skid, Louisville rode a six-game winning streak into Greensboro. Hillsman and the Orange knew it had to win the ACC tournament to reach the NCAA tournament while the Cardinals are a projected two-seed. 

Unprompted, Louisville head coach Jeff Walz mentioned Sabrina Ionescu and Oregon — the nation’s best player and team to beat — in his postgame press conference. He noted that the Cardinals are 2-0 against the reigning Wooden Award winner. In Hillsman’s, there was talk about the WNIT. 

In SU’s previous win over the Cardinals, Evans played as poorly as she had all season. Louisville’s leading scorer shot 4-for-17 with five turnovers as Louisville dropped just its third game of the season. The conference’s top team hasn’t lost a game since. On Friday, Cardinals head coach Jeff Walz credited Elizabeth Balogun, who didn’t play in the loss to Syracuse, for his team’s improvement against the 2-3 zone.

“(Balogun’s) got the ability to make four or five 3s in a row so it spreads the floor for us,” Walz said. “Now we’re able to spread things out, so when we do get a chance to drive and attack the gap we’re getting nice looks.”

Balogun had just five points on 2-for-9 shooting on Friday, but her presence alone forced Hillsman to adjust the way the Orange set up defensively. 

SU had four 3-point shooters to keep track of at all times, so it couldn’t afford to focus on just Evans. When the Orange pressured Evans and Jones on the perimeter, Louisville fed inside to forwards Dunham and Kylee Shook. When SU turned its focus to bigs, Louisville’s perimeter players found space to fire from behind the arc. The Cardinals shot 12-for-23 from 3-point range, equalling its highest tally of the season.

After a sluggish first quarter by both teams, Louisville ramped up the tempo on both ends of the court. The Cardinals’ pace in the second quarter was the difference, Evans said. Whenever Louisville got a defensive rebound or a steal, it pushed the ball up the court to keep SU from setting up its 2-3 zone.

On the Orange’s second possession of the quarter, Lewis attempted to find Emily Engstler in the high post, but her looping pass was poked away by Yacine Diop. Evans reacted quickest and snagged the ball before it went out of bounds, then smoked Lewis in a race to the basket. Her collision with Cooper in mid-air wasn’t enough to keep the ball out of the hoop. And-one.

“We dictated a lot of what we wanted (Syracuse) to do,” Walz said. “Instead of just reacting to what they were doing, I thought defensively we were there on the catch.

Louisville’s high tempo and aggression throughout the second quarter and beyond blew the Orange away. Its 21-point lead at halftime was too much for Syracuse to overcome in the second half, no matter the adjustments it made. The Cardinals were simply too smart, too savvy and flat-out better than the Orange.

Published on March 6, 2020 at 6:37 pm

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