LOUISVILLE, Ky. — So often this season, the 3-pointer has bailed out Syracuse’s stagnant offense. The Orange hit 10 at Clemson and 15 at N.C. State. But SU faced the No. 7 team in the nation on Sunday, a significantly more daunting defensive team.

Syracuse finished 8-for-29 from behind the arc against Louisville in its second-to-last regular season game. Selection Sunday looms two weeks away and the Orange’s offense again amounted to standing around watching each other. That forced SU to take contested 3-pointers and this time Syracuse made only 27.6 percent of them.

“When we shoot it better from there,” Orange head coach Jim Boeheim said, “we’re a different team.”

But the team that showed up at the KFC Yum! Center lost, 88-68, to the Cardinals (23-6, 11-5 Atlantic Coast). Syracuse’s (17-13, 9-8) most reliable 3-point threats — Tyler Lydon, John Gillon and Andrew White — combined to shoot 4-for-18 from deep. Syracuse had entered Sunday ranking third in the ACC in 3-pointers made this season. Credit Louisville’s matchup zone defense for troubling the Orange all game and turned SU back into the team that lost by 17 at North Carolina and 18 at Notre Dame.

The Orange now sits at 2-10 away from the Carrier Dome this season. Its final chance to beat a ranked team on the road slipped through its fingers after leading for just over two minutes in the first half. Louisville pulled away, decimating SU’s offensive attack that featured four players scoring double digits in an upset win over No. 10 Duke on Wednesday. After beating three Top 10 teams in the past month, UofL forced the Orange to shoot nearly 10 percent worse from behind the arc than its average in ACC play.

“Syracuse can beat anybody any given night,” Cardinals head coach Rick Pitino said, “and we just wanted to make sure every shot they took was challenged.”

Boeheim called a 30-second timeout trailing by 15 with three and a half minutes until halftime. He yelled at the ref pleading about calls he disagreed with. Assistant coach Adrian Autry pointed and yelled at the players sitting in the huddle. Nearly all of the Cardinals’ fans remained standing through the timeout.

Louisville switched on every screen, a scheme that proved effective against an offense built around the ball screen. Syracuse had to drive to the basket in order to generate its offense because otherwise it’d be playing right into the Cardinals’ hands. In comeback wins over then-No. 9 Virginia and Duke earlier this week, the Orange relied on Tyus Battle and Gillon to get inside in the second half.

“We weren’t moving enough (against) the matchup zone,” Battle said. “If we moved, we found success. We just had to keep moving. But when you stand still in that zone, they don’t have to do much work.”

On Sunday, SU only found such success in smaller doses. Even when Syracuse pulled to 60-48, with 11 minutes to play, a missed 3 from White set up Lydon’s one-handed putback dunk.

On the Orange’s next possession, Gillon elevated from the left wing, closer to the sideline than the 3-point arc. The ball clanked off the rim and Boeheim held his arm out while barking instructions. Gillon’s at his best when he gets to the second level of opposing defenses. Instead, he stood on the perimeter and finished with as many turnovers (three) as assists.

“It’s important you get up on them and make them drive,” Pitino said. “Especially when you have a 20-point lead, you know they’re going to do that.”

For the eighth straight game, the Orange trailed by double digits. But the comeback Syracuse expected never arrived. Instead of chipping away by getting to the rim, SU chucked 3s that never found the bottom of the bucket.

“The first half, we weren’t aggressive offensively,” Boeheim said. “We just dug a hole and just couldn’t climb out of it.”

Published on February 26, 2017 at 6:29 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds