No. 2 Syracuse scrapes by No. 18 Lousiville despite shooting woes

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The No. 2 Syracuse Orange took on the No. 18 Louisville Cardinals at the KFC Yum! Center on Monday night in a scrappy battle that lasted until the game’s final seconds, when the Orange pulled away with a 52-51 win.

Some would say this was a tremendous defensive battle. I would have to disagree: this was a game of poor shooting.

Yes, both teams did put forth great defensive efforts, but fans can’t claim that defense alone was the main reason for the low-scoring output. Let’s take a closer look at the stats just to see how awful the shooters were for both teams.

Syracuse (26-1, 13-1 Big East) had a terrible game when it came to three-point shooting, making 1 out of 15. That’s absolutely incredible that the No. 2 team made only 6.7 percent from behind the arc.

Three-pointers weren’t the only problem for the Orange, either, as their overall shooting percentage was a season-low 34 percent. But it’s not like Louisville (20-6, 8-5) shot any better. The Cardinals made only 34 percent overall from the floor (and had 16 turnovers).

Talk about poor execution from both teams. However, Syracuse rose above its poor performance at the very end to keep its winning streak alive, while also ending a seven-game skid to the Cardinals.

With 3:30 left to play, the Cardinals took a small lead of 51-46, and it seemed like Louisville would come out on top, but the bad shooting still plagued Louisville, and the Cardinals wouldn’t score again for the rest of the game.

Syracuse had time to play catch-up, and C.J. Fair, who had a team-high 13 points, led the Orange to the comeback win, scoring the go-ahead layup to make it 52-51 with 2:10 left to play in the game.

Neither team would score the rest of the game.

The MVP was clearly C.J. Fair, since he racked up the most points for Syracuse, snagged five rebounds as well, and proved to be cool in the clutch. One of the most controversial people of the game, however, wasn’t a player on either team, but actually referee Jim Burr, who seemed to have his whistle super-glued to his lips. He caused such an uproar that he was even trending on twitter with tweets from both team’s fans.

This isn’t the last time that the two Big East teams will face each other. Both of the team’s last regular game of the season is against each other at Syracuse’s raucous home court, the Carrier Dome. Louisville will have its chance for revenge and might be able to achieve it, as long as referee Jim Burr isn’t there. But another big problem looming over Louisville will be the pressure from Syracuse’s fans, who will be in a frenzy come end of the season, when the Cardinals and Orange face off on March 3.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Syracuse will next take on Rutgers (12-13, 4-8) Feb. 19 for another road game, while Louisville will face DePaul (11-13, 2-10) on the road on Feb. 18.

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