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In a tilt eerily reminiscent of the one the two teams played in the championship game of the 2013 Big East Tournament, Louisville erased a 12-point first half deficit to run away from Syracuse and notch a 72-58 victory.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Cardinals, and helped U of L avoid what would have been its first three-game losing streak to unranked opponents since Denny Crum's final season of 2000-01.
Before we get into anything else, this happened:
And then this did:
It's like Louisville found a "if you make the other team cry they have to let you play in the tournament" loophole pic.twitter.com/m4kMWmXva4
— Mike Rutherford (@CardChronicle) February 18, 2016
Other highlights from the evening include Louisville assisting on 21 of its 32 made field goals, the Cards outrebounding Syracuse by 11, Chinanu Onuau getting back on the double-double train with a dominant 13 and 15 performance, Damion Lee lighting it up from the outside (15 points), Trey Lewis coming off the bench and delivering his best performance in a month (14 points and 5 boards), Matz Stockman showing some serious potential in the first half, and both the fans and the bench bringing the same intensity they were 16 days ago.
This team deserves March, and yeah, the whole situation still sucks, but I think we all needed a night like this; a glorious two hour reprieve from everything. Thanks to the guys in red and white for making that happen.
Here's your box score:
| Syracuse Orange |
||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STARTERS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| DaJuan Coleman, C | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||
| Michael Gbinije, F | 5-11 | 1-4 | 2-4 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 13 | ||
| Tyler Roberson, F | 2-6 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| Trevor Cooney, G | 6-14 | 5-10 | 2-2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 19 | ||
| Malachi Richardson, G | 2-9 | 2-6 | 4-8 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 | ||
| BENCH | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Tyler Lydon, F | 2-7 | 0-3 | 2-3 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 6 | ||
| Franklin Howard, G | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||
| TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| 19-50 | 8-24 | 12-21 | 8 | 22 | 30 | 15 | 7 | 1 | 11 | 9 | 58 | |||
| 38.0% | 33.3% | 57.1% | ||||||||||||
| Louisville Cardinals | ||||||||||||||
| STARTERS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Chinanu Onuaku, C | 6-9 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 13 | ||
| Damion Lee, F | 6-14 | 3-9 | 0-0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 15 | ||
| Jaylen Johnson, F | 3-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | ||
| Quentin Snider, G | 2-10 | 1-7 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Donovan Mitchell, G | 4-7 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 8 | ||
| BENCH | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Matz Stockman, C | 3-6 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ||
| Raymond Spalding, F | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Deng Adel, F | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Trey Lewis, G | 6-11 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 14 | ||
| David Levitch, G | 1-1 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| 32-67 | 7-23 | 1-2 | 14 | 27 | 41 | 21 | 7 | 2 | 11 | 17 | 72 | |||
| 47.8% | 30.4% | 50.0% | ||||||||||||
Technical Fouls: PLAYERS: None - TEAMS: None