Orange Downed By #20 Louisville, 89-62

Saturday, February 11

Louisville, K.Y.

2 p.m.

Syracuse University

Louisville

Photo by: Michael J. Okoniewski

2/11/2012 1:49:01 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score | Season Stats

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Despite a 20-point, 12-rebound effort from Kayla Alexander, Syracuse women's basketball (15-11, 4-8 BIG EAST) lost to hot-shooting No. 20/17 Louisville (18-7, 7-5 BIG EAST), 89-62, on Saturday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center.

Becky Burke scored a career-high 28 points on a Louisville school-record eight 3-pointers in 15 attempts to lead a Cardinals offense that shot 58.1 percent (18-of-31) from 3-point range to score 54 of its 89 points from behind the arc.

"They made a lot of shots today," head coach Quentin Hillsman said, "They shot the ball really well and sometimes you have to give a team credit for that."

It was Alexander's sixth double-double of the season and 14^th of her career, in addition to her eighth 20+ point game of the season. The junior finished the game with career 1,296 points, passing Beth Record (1,285) for eighth on the Syracuse scoring list.

Rachel Coffey and Elashier Hall each scored 11 points to give SU three players in double-figures.

Shoni Schimmel scored 20 points, shot 6-of-10 from 3-point range, and dished out 10 assists for Louisville.

The Orange shot 28 percent in the second half after a 57.1 percent effort in the first 20 minutes to finish the game at 43.4 percent. The Cardinals followed up their 54.5 percent opening half with a 44.8 percent effort in the second to finish at 50 percent overall.

After Hall hit a jumper to start the second half and pull the Orange within nine, 51-42, the Cardinals used a 15-5 run over the next five minutes, fueled by four 3-pointers, to take a 19-point lead, 66-47, with 14:07 to go. The Orange was unable to draw any closer than 15 points the rest of the way and U of L closed the game with a 13-4 run.

The Orange outscored Louisville, 22-11 over the final 6:30 of the first half to cut what was a 21-point deficit to 11 at halftime, 51-40. Coffey led the Orange with 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point range and Alexander scored all 10 of her first-half points in SU's run in the final six minutes.

It was a hot-shooting first half for both sides as Syracuse shot 57.1 percent, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range, and Louisville almost matched that mark with 54.5 percent shooting and made more from the outside, 9-of-16 from 3-point range to account for the 11-point difference.

Louisville jumped out to a 21-point lead, 39-18, behind eight 3-pointers, led by four from Burke. She led all scorers in the first half with 14.

The Orange returns home to host Marquette on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. in SU's Play 4Kay game. Fans that wear pink to the game can purchase tickets for $5.