Syracuse @ Louisville preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 20, 2019 ) Louisville 49, Syracuse 69

Louisville's path to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament has encountered some bumps in the road of late. The 11th-ranked Cardinals aim to avoid a third straight defeat Wednesday when they host Syracuse in ACC action.

Louisville won 10 straight games earlier in 2020, including wins over Duke and Virginia, but the team has averaged only 60 points in losing its last two contests. Following a 64-58 defeat to Georgia Tech, the Cardinals fell at Clemson 77-62 their last time out, prompting coach Chris Mack to remark: "This week wasn't a good week for us." Syracuse likely has sympathy as the Orange have lost four of their last five games with only a two-point win over Wake Forest separating them from a five-game skid. "Our defense hasn't been good down the stretch," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said after a tight loss to Florida State the last time out. "We got to get stops, we got to rebound to win games like this."

TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: ESPN

ABOUT SYRACUSE (14-11, 7-7 ACC): The Orange were led against the Seminoles by 25 points from Elijah Hughes, who has been battling a groin injury but still played nearly the entire game against Florida State. The other top scorers for Syracuse, Buddy Boeheim and Joe Girard III, didn't give Hughes much help versus Florida State, as they combined to shoot 7-of-29 from the field with Boeheim going scoreless on 0-of-7 shooting. Boeheim, the son of Syracuse's long-time coach, is 4-of-22 from the field in the last two games but still ranks second on the team in scoring (15.6) behind Hughes (18.9).

ABOUT LOUISVILLE (21-5, 12-3): Jordan Nwora (18.2 points) is the only Cardinals player averaging double-digit points, and he leads the team in 3-pointers (64) while connecting at a sparkling 42.1 percent clip from long range. However, Nwora has been awful in the last two games, combining for only seven points during the two-game skid while shooting 2-of-11 from the field and 1-of-9 from 3-point range. Dwayne Sutton registered 18 points against Clemson, while David Johnson provided a lift with 12 points, eight assists and six rebounds off the bench.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Syracuse won last year's meeting 69-49 as Louisville only made 14 shots in the game at a 25.9 percent shooting clip.

2. Louisville only averages 12.2 turnovers per game and nobody on the squad averages more than 2.2 per game.

3. In his last six games, Hughes is 6-of-33 from long range.

PREDICTION: Louisville 82, Syracuse 66