Syracuse has very few things to play for this season because of their postseason ban. But they didn’t stop Rakeem Christmas and Syracuse tonight as they brought down the 12th ranked Cardinals.

Christmas played poorly against Duke but tonight he went 9-10 from the field and hit 11-13 free throws to show that he deserves ACC POTY consideration. It was the first game against the two teams since the Big East Tournament Championship game where Louisville won by double digits.

“It felt good. We needed a win like this to keep us going the rest of the season,” Christmas said.

Starting point guard Chris Jones was suspended for Louisville because of violation of team rules. He was the Cardinals best defensive player and led the team in assists. They missed him most on the defensive side of the ball even though Quentin Snider played fantastic against the zone defense. Louisville only grabbed two steals tonight for the second straight game and have lost two in a row now.

“What’s stopping us from being a very good basketball team—the last three years we’ve been one of the most feared defensive teams in the nation with steals, turnovers. We’ve been void of both,” said Pitino.

Harrell was one of the lone bright spots for Louisville as he finished with 15 points and nine rebounds with most of them coming in the first half. Rozier had 17 points and Snider scored 13 points, but Blackshear became the first player in the ACC since 2011 to start a game in the ACC and foul out without recording a single point, assist, or rebound.

“It wasn’t Snider’s play, it was Blackshear getting in foul trouble. We missed a lot of shots that would have kept us in the game in the second half that were wide open,” Pitino said.

Rakeem Christmas finished the game with 29 points and 8 rebounds. Cooney went 1-10 from the field scoring only 3 points but had 4 rebounds and assists. Gbinije also contributed 18 points and 6 assists. David Levitch also played an unusual amount of minutes for the Cardinals because Pitino is questioning Shaqquan Aaron’s work ethic and that Gill is having a down year.

Syracuse went on to win the game 69-59 as both teams are 8-5 in the ACC.

Next Games:

Louisville - Miami 2/21/15

Syracuse - Pittsburgh 2/21/15