WBB: Cards Blow By Syracuse 87-61; Advance to ACC Semifinal

Mark BlankenbakerMarch 6, 2026

The No. 2 seed Louisville women’s basketball (26-6, 15-3 ACC) opened the Ally ACC Championship with an 87-61 win over No. 7 seed Syracuse (23-8, 12-6 ACC) Friday night at Gas South Arena. The 87 points are the most points scored in an ACC Tournament game in program history. With the win, the Cardinals advance to the ACC Semifinals for the ninth time in their 12 seasons in the league.

It was another balanced offensive effort for the Cardinals as they had six different players in double figures. Louisville improved to 7-0 this season when shooting 50 percent or better after shooting a team-best 55.9% (38-68) for the game. The Cards tallied 41 bench points in the win, the 13th game this season they have had 40 or more bench points.

They were led by Tajianna Roberts, who scored 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting with four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Reyna Scott had 15 points and shot 7-for-10 from the field with a game-high five assists to go with five rebounds and two steals. Mackenly Randolph tallied her second double-double in as many games with 12 points and a team-high 10 rebounds to go with three assists. Skylar Jones (12 points), Laura Ziegler (11 points) and Imari Berry (11 points) rounded out the double figures scoring for the Cards.

After not hitting a field goal over the first few minutes, the Louisville offense started to heat up in the first quarter. They ripped off an 8-0 run and forced Syracuse to use an early timeout. The Cards continued their hot shooting out of the timeout as they hit five-straight field goals to build a double-digit lead. Louisville shot 11-for-16 from the floor in the first quarter and had six different players score to take a 25-12 lead into the second quarter.

Louisville grew its lead as high as 17 in the second quarter before the Orange began to claw back. Syracuse had a 9-0 run to get the lead down to single digits for the first time since early in the first quarter. Louisville responded with an 8-0 run of its own to push the lead back up to double digits. Another quick spurt from Syracuse got it down to 10 before Berry beat the buzzer with a floater to give the Cards a 45-32 lead heading into the half.

The halftime break did not slow down the Cardinals, as they scored the first 10 points of the third quarter. Triples from Scott and Ziegler and a Roberts jumper extended the Louisville lead above 20 for the first time in the game. A dry spell for the Cards halfway through the quarter gave way to a 11-0 run to the Orange to cut into the deficit. The Cardinals were held scoreless for almost five minutes as Syracuse got the deficit down to 10. A Scott jumper and a three from Elif Istanbulluoglu gave the Cards the final five points of the third and took a 62-47 lead into the fourth.

In the final quarter, Louisville put their foot down with a 7-0 run to start the quarter and put the game out of reach. The lead grew to its highest in the final minutes of the quarter as the Cards got valuable minutes from the bench to close out the game.

The Cardinals will be back in action on Saturday for the semifinals of the ACC Tournament. Louisville will face the winner of No. 3 seed North Carolina and No. 6 seed Virginia Tech on Saturday afternoon from Gas South Arena. The game will tip off at 2:30 p.m. ET and it will be broadcast on ESPN2.