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After a near fourth quarter comeback against Miami, Syracuse was blown out by No. 4 Louisville, losing to the Cardinals by 36 points. But the Orange are set to face one of their most favorable conference matchups this season against Virginia, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s worst team.

The Orange will have the opportunity to win just their third conference game of the season with seven games remaining. To keep its postseason hopes alive, Syracuse needs to get back over .500 and earn its first road win of the season against the struggling Cavaliers.

Here is everything you need to know before Syracuse (9-12, 2-9 ACC) heads to Virginia (3-17, 0-10 ACC):

All-time series

Syracuse leads 8-4.

Last time they played

The two teams last faced each other at the end of the 2019-20 season because its matchup in the 2020-21 season was canceled. In the teams’ 2020 ACC Tournament matchup, Syracuse won 67-50, specifically dominating Virginia on the defensive end.

The Orange drew 26 turnovers and blocked 10 shots, while holding the Cavaliers to a point total that tied a season-low for SU’s defense. Offensively, SU’s production was similar to how it is this year, needing buckets from its starters in order to finish the game. Amaya Finklea-Guity, Gabrielle Cooper, Emily Engstler, Kiara Lewis and Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi all finished scoring in double digits, with Finklea-Guity leading the bunch with 15.

The Cavaliers report

Virginia is the easiest conference opponent for the Orange, as it sits at the bottom of the table and is still winless through 10 ACC matchups. The Cavaliers are also not much better at home as they have only won once in Charlottesville all season.

Amid an 11-game losing streak, the only positive for the Cavaliers has been on the defensive end as they’ve held opponents to an average of 65.2 points per game. But on offense, Virginia only makes 3.8 3-pointers per game and turns over the ball an average of 18.8 times per game.

This is something that the Orange can take advantage of by forcing Virginia to score from deep while also using their full-court press to generate easy steals.

How Syracuse beats Virginia

The Orange haven’t been able to turn good defense into offense, despite their full-court press and regular 2-3 zone forcing 19.9 turnovers per game. The way to defeat the Cavaliers is to continue playing tough defense since they’ve failed to put together more than 70 points in a game this season.

And offensively, Syracuse needs to remain consistent. Syracuse shot nearly 50% in the third quarter the first time it played Notre Dame, but it fell back to a lackluster 15.8% from the field in the final 10 minutes. Then against Louisville, SU had the same success from deep in the first half but made a combined eight field goals in the final 20 minutes.

To pull out a win, the Orange need to put together a complete four quarters offensively with their six-player rotation, letting their defense take care of everything else.

Player to watch: Camryn Taylor, forward, No. 20

Camryn Taylor is the Cavaliers leading scorer this season, averaging 12.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. The Marquette transfer matched her career-high in her debut with Virginia, scoring 27 points against James Madison University.

Taylor is one of the only bright spots in Virginia’s offense, with a 40.3% field goal percentage. But like the Cavaliers, Taylor also struggles from deep, shooting 18.2% from beyond the arc.

Stat to know: 34.4 % Opponent 3-point field goal percentage

Virginia is currently 317th nationally in 3-point defense, allowing opponents to shoot almost 35% from deep, per Her Hoop Stats. The Cavaliers allow an average of 6.25 3-pointers per game, a mark that Syracuse has passed in all but five games this season.

This is a matchup that favors the Orange, who have improved upon their success from deep in recent games, shooting 50% from beyond the arc in the first half against Louisville. Still, they struggled in the second half, and only shot a combined 17.5% from 3 earlier this season against Georgia Tech and Notre Dame.

But if SU can get all five of its starters going from deep, there’s no reason why it can’t jump out to an early lead and maintain it throughout the game. Specifically, Najé Murray needs to continue her success as she’s had an up-and-down stretch since recovering from COVID-19 in early January.

Published on February 7, 2022 at 8:30 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu