Louisville, Ky. ― Finding ways to win at the most critical time of the season, the Syracuse Orange extended their winning streak to four games with an 82-76 victory over the Louisville Cardinals here at the KFC Yum! Center on Saturday.
Syracuse, desperately chasing an NCAA Tournament bid, continued the hunt with the win over the Cardinals. The Orange are now 20-10 overall and 11-8 in the ACC. Syracuse will close out the regular season Tuesday at Clemson. This is the fourth straight game in which Syracuse has scored 80 or more points.
The 20 regular-season wins are Syracuse’s most since the 2013-14 season.
The Orange led by as many as 19 points in the second half and still led 78-69 with 1:48 left after Judah Mintz sank a pair of free throws.
However, nothing will come easy for the Orange. Louisville closed to within 78-74 on a 3-pointer by Mike James with 38 seconds left.
But Justin Taylor, who was 1-for-5 at the foul line on the night, coolly hit two free throws with 31 seconds left and then hit another with 20 seconds left to seal the win.
The Orange led for most of Saturday’s game, but a 16-to-5 run put Louisville away when the Cardinals attempted a second-half challenge.
Syracuse led 44-33 when Mintz, upset about not getting paid, picked up a technical foul with 17:28 left in the game. Syracuse coach Adrian Autry sat Mintz out for the next three minutes.
The technique seemed to ignite Louisville, which went on a 9-4 spurt to close the gap to 48-42.
But when Mintz returned, he immediately put the juice back into the orange. He attacks the basket for a foul on Louisville’s Sky Clark. Two possessions later, Mintz drove to the hoop again, this time scoring for a 57-47 lead with 12:10 left in the game.
Syracuse continued to push the offense using a variety of drives off high screens. The streak finally ended with the Orange taking a huge 64-47 lead.
Chris Bell paced the Orange offense with a game-high 23 points, his sixth 20-plus point game of the season. Bell also had 30 points in SU’s win over Louisville earlier this season at the JMA Wireless Dome.
Mintz scored 21 points, dished out five assists and grabbed two steals. Syracuse center Malik Brown contributed 10 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals. It was his third double-double of the season.
Louisville’s record fell to 8-21 on the season and 3-15 in the conference.
Syracuse played without backup center Peter Carey, who missed the game due to illness.
Working with a short bench due to Carey’s absence and Quadir Copeland saddled with three fouls, Autry switched to a 2-3 zone defense midway through the half and stuck with it for the rest of the game. The zone kept any other Syracuse players from getting into foul trouble, and Louisville went 1-for-7 from 3-point range in the first half.
The Cardinals finished the night 4-for-19 from the 3-point arc.
Mintz, Brown, Bell and Taylor played the entire first half. Brown, Taylor and Bell would play the full 40 minutes of the game.
Syracuse raced, literally, to a 39-28 halftime lead. The Orange scored 10 fast-break points in the half, while Louisville had zero.
The orange cap in half appropriately. Syracuse threw the ball with 5 seconds left against Louisville’s full court press. The inbounds pass went to Brown, who deflected Mintz’s shot. Mintz went in for a near-uncontested dunk just before the buzzer.
Mintz scored 15 points in the first half on 6-for-10 shooting. He wasn’t alone. As a team, Syracuse connected on 15 of its 24 field goal attempts, a .620 percentage.
The Orange attacked the rim against Louisville. Only two of the buckets made by Syracuse were 3-pointers, with the Orange going 2-for-4 in the half.
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