An Erica Morrow free throw put Syracuse up six with just 30 seconds left. All the Orange had to do was protect the 3-point line against Louisville, and it would walk away with the victory.

Cardinals guard Tia Gibbs hurried the ball up court to the right wing. Junior Becky Burke, a 40 percent 3-point shooter on the season, came at her teammate for a handoff. As the two Cardinals crossed, Gibbs faked the pass and pulled up for a 3 one dribble later.

But SU guard Elashier Hall jumped right in her face. With no room for a shot, Louisville head coach Jeff Walz had to call a timeout. On the ensuing inbounds play, Burke jacked up a shot from the left wing with Syracuse’s Carmen Tyson-Thomas contesting. It clanged off the rim, and Hall pulled in the rebound, all but sealing the Orange victory.

Syracuse pulled out a 53-45 victory over the Cardinals on Wednesday in front of 1,343 fans in the Carrier Dome. It was the fewest points a conference opponent scored on the Orange (18-7, 6-6 Big East) all year and was the lowest total for Louisville (16-10, 7-5) this season. The Cardinals shot just 28 percent from the field and hit only 5-of-26 from 3-point territory.

‘I’ve seen them shoot the ball obviously a lot better than that,’ SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. ‘But I think our guards and our forwards did a very good job eliminating their 3s. … If you want to play a zone and they’re going to get five 3s in an entire game, I think you can be happy with the zone.’

From the opening tip, both teams struggled offensively. After the Cardinals took a 9-7 lead with 12:06 left, they tallied just one bucket over the next 10 minutes of play. That stretch included 10 missed 3-pointers in a row for Louisville.

While the UL shooters faltered from deep, the Orange shut down any inside threats. SU center Kayla Alexander established herself in the paint early on the defensive end when Monique Reid tried to drive to the basket. Louisville’s leading scorer went straight at Alexander, but the sophomore was up for the challenge, holding her ground and swatting the shot away.

‘I just wanted it,’ said Alexander, who finished with four of Syracuse’s eight blocks. ‘I tried to go out and stop them from getting easy baskets.’

But while the Cardinals offense stalled, SU was only able to build a 12-point lead. A short Louisville spurt that included two 3-pointers by Gibbs just before halftime closed the gap to 23-19 at the break.

Still, the defensive struggle continued into the second half. Louisville continued to get looks at the basket — sometimes contested, sometimes wide open — but couldn’t find any rhythm from beyond the arc. The Cardinals’ second-leading scorer, Shoni Schimmel, finished the game shooting 1-of-12 from 3-point range and missed all five of her two-point shots.

‘We probably could have just stopped at half court and thrown them up,’ Walz said. ‘And we’d make just as many.’

As the game wore on, Louisville managed to hang around as Syracuse couldn’t pull away on the other end. In the second half, the Orange never led by more than the eight-point final margin, and it was much closer throughout the period.

For senior guard Morrow, the clock simply would not move fast enough as the Cardinals refused to go away.

‘As the point guard and always being aware of the clock,’ Morrow said, ‘it felt like it was taking a really long time.’

The Orange finally put the game away late with some offensive rebounding.

After taking a 47-45 lead with 2:51 left and regaining possession after the Cardinals missed yet another 3-pointer, SU maintained possession for the next 73 seconds. The Orange’s misses resulted in rebounds by Alexander, forward Iasia Hemingway and Tyson-Thomas, allowing Syracuse to run the clock down.

Once Louisville finally got the ball, it couldn’t claw back.

As the final seconds ticked off, Hillsman didn’t let his emotions show as he clapped nonchalantly and shook hands with the Cardinals. But he said after the game just how important this victory was for SU.

‘This was one of those games where we needed to come out and get a signature win in conference,’ Hillsman said. ‘And I believe this is definitely one.’

zjbrown@syr.edu