Syracuse women's basketball will face Louisville for the second time this season following a huge home win over Virginia. The last time these two teams played, the Cardinals took down the Orange 86-77 despite a 27-point performance from Teisha Hyman.
This time around, the Orange are coming off a home win that saw Dyaisha Fair hit eight threes, tying a program record, and score 36 points overall. Louisville, on the other hand, will enter Sunday’s matchup coming off a 68-57 loss to Wake Forest.
In that loss, Louisville’s leading scorer, Hailey Van Lith, was held to just eight points in 35 minutes. Interestingly, the Cardinals shot over 53 percent from the field but still came up short to the Demon Deacons, who shot just 46.5 percent from the field, but 50 percent from three.
A common thread between Syracuse and Louisville is that each team possesses one of the best shooters in the ACC. Both Dyaisha Fair and Hailey Van Lith average 19.9 points per game, putting them in a two-way tie for second place in the conference. Only Florida State’s freshman star Ta’Niya Latson scores more than Van Lith and Fair on average.
Hailey Van Lith was recently named to the midseason Wooden Award Watch List, the award given to the most outstanding player in women’s college basketball each season. Despite Fair’s stats nearly mirroring Van Lith’s, she was not named to the list.
The last time these two teams squared off, the Cardinals scorched Syracuse on the boards, tallying 47 rebounds to Cuse’s 31. Dariauna Lewis made up over a third of the Orange’s 31 rebounds with 11 to her name.
Head Coach Felisha Legette-Jack has praised her team’s rebounding abilities throughout the season, something that falls largely on the backs of her bigs. Dariauna Lewis and Kyra Wood have gotten the majority of the starts for the Orange as of late, with Asia Strong and Saniaa Wilson coming off the bench.
When these two teams last faced off, Dariauna Lewis was still doing the vast majority of work inside for the Orange. Two major developments since then, however, are the increase in productivity from Asia Strong and the overall improvement of Kyra Wood. Strong has become a consistent choice for Coach Legette-Jack to pull from off her bench, and Wood has worked her way into the starting lineup. She has been a key rotation player in the paint for her team.
At the end of the day, this will predominantly be a shootout. Van Lith and Fair are top 25 scorers in all of women’s college basketball, let alone the ACC. Both players will not only have to find ways to score, but will have to contain their counterpart on the other end of the floor, too. This matchup will likely center around the two offensive powerhouses.
Being that the season is about halfway through, the postseason, or potentially lack thereof, is looming large for teams like Syracuse. Teams in Syracuse’s category have good wins but not enough great wins in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament selection committee. As of Sunday morning, Louisville is a projected eight seed in the tournament, whereas Syracuse is nowhere to be found in the field or on the bubble.
A win against Louisville would be a sizable boost to the Orange’s chance at any kind of postseason, whether that be the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. For Louisville, a win against the Orange would likely keep them right where they are in current projections, as Syracuse is not currently projected to make the field, but is not an insignificant opponent, either.
In terms of the postseason, this game is significantly more important to SU than it is to Louisville. While ‘Cuse does have a few more chances at solid, postseason-qualifying wins, time is running out and this is a golden opportunity to earn a good win before facing three currently ranked opponents in their next four games.
This is a big game for the Orange, and a win on Sunday would likely boost their chances at a postseason quite a bit.
The game is set to tip off at noon in the JMA Wireless Dome and will be broadcast on ACC Network.