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Syracuse women’s basketball faces No. 1 Louisville (12-0, 5-0 ACC), its first ranked opponent this season, on Thursday night. The matchup will be the 19th time in program history that SU faces the country’s No. 1 team.

The No. 23 Orange (7-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast) are 0-18 all-time against No. 1 teams and 0-8 under current head coach Quentin Hillsman. Most recently, No. 1 Oregon defeated Syracuse 81-64 in November 2019 in the Carrier Dome. 

Forward Emily Engstler said via Zoom on Nov. 25 that SU was “a top-5 team” and that its ranking — the same as it is currently — was “completely disrespectful.”  

Here’s what you need to know about Thursday’s game:

All-time series

Louisville leads 13-7

Last time they played

Syracuse split the regular-season series with Louisville 1-1, including a 59-51 upset of the then-No. 5 Cardinals in the Carrier Dome on Feb. 9. But Louisville later eliminated the Orange from the ACC Tournament on March 6 with a resounding 71-46 win in the quarterfinal round. 

Then-junior Dana Evans led the way for the tournament’s top-seed, scoring 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting. Syracuse ended with a paltry 27% field goal percentage while being outrebounded 38-21. 

The Louisville report

Evans is back not only as the Cardinals top player but also as one of the nation’s best. The 5-foot-6 senior guard leads the conference with 19.4 points per game. She’s coming off one of her lowest scoring outputs of the season against Florida State on Sunday, but she paired her 12 points with a season-high eight assists.

The Cardinals lead the conference in scoring (85.8 points per game) and are second in scoring defense (59.3 points per game). All but two of Louisville’s wins were by 18 points or more. However, much like the Orange, Louisville had an extensive  pause due to COVID-19 that meant no in-game action between Dec. 9 and Jan. 1.

Thursday marks the second time Louisville will face a team ranked in the AP Top 25 poll. The first was an 116-75 annihilation of No. 20 DePaul at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut. Four scorers eclipsed 19 points, including ESPN top-100’s No. 7 recruit, Hailey Van Lith, who led the way with 21 points. Overall, Louisville has four scorers averaging over 12 points per game. 

How Syracuse beats the Cardinals

Slow the game down. While Hillsman’s philosophy is predicated upon a full-court press for the entire game and scoring in spurts, Louisville does that at a more efficient clip. 

The Cardinals lead the ACC in points per possession (1.11) while the Orange sit fifth at 1.04, per HerHoopStats. Extrapolate that over 40 minutes, and Louisville races past SU. To have its best shot at taking down a No. 1 ranked team for the first time in school history, Syracuse needs to play to its strengths by letting Tiana Mangakahia and Kiara Lewis set a more methodical tempo and by establishing 6-foot-7 center Kamilla Cardoso down low early. 

Stat to know: 4.2

That’s the difference between Louisville’s ACC-best turnover margin of four and Syracuse’s mark of -0.2. To have a legitimate chance on Thursday night, Mangakahia needs to carry momentum from her three-turnover, 13-assist performance against North Carolina instead of reverting back to her season average of 5.6 turnovers per game. Do that, and one of the program’s all-time greats will move the Orange one step closer to its ultimate goal. 

How to watch

The game starts at 9 p.m. and airs on ESPN2. 

Published on January 21, 2021 at 5:50 pm

Contact Tim: tnolan@syr.edu