Michael Carter-Williams led the No. 6 Syracuse Orange to get past No. 1 Louisville Cardinals 70-68 in a closely fought game Saturday.
Carter-Williams hit a 3-pointer with 5:28 remaining, then had a steal and a dunk with just 23 seconds left in the game to score nine points out of his Orange's final 11. He scored 16 points, seven assists, chipped in four rebounds and had four steals in the game to help the Orange win their seventh straight game.
''I wasn't going to go out without a fight,'' The Associated Press quoted Carter-Williams as saying. ''They were pressuring us, coming at us in the first half. Things were going their way. The second half, I tried to fight back the best I could. I had two or three turnovers but I just kept flipping the page, flipping the page and ended up winning the game, which was great. ..."
''Those free throws, I just had to have faith in myself and just try to do anything to get the win.''
Brandon Triche was the top scorer for Syracuse with 23 points. He shot 9 out of 13 attempts from the floor. He hit five 3-pointers, while Jerami Grant and C.J. Fair had 10 points in the Orange's third straight victory over the Cardinals.
''Michael was the reason we won the game, getting the dunk,'' Triche said. ''I might have kept us in the game, but he's the reason we won the game getting the two steals. That's winning stuff.''
For the Cardinals, the top scorer Russ Smith added 25 points and shot eight out of 18 attempts from the field. Smith hit two free throws to give Louisville a 68-66 lead with 1:58 left in the game, but after that the Cardinals missed two shots and had two turnovers.
''That was a great college basketball game and they made some really terrific defensive plays down the stretch,'' Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. ''They made the plays, they made the shots when it counted and we didn't.''
Orange made seven of their first nine shots and hit 14 out of 23 attempts from the floor behind Triche, who shot all four 3-pointers and scored 18 points in the first period as Syracuse and Louisville both scored 38 points apiece in the first half.
In a fiercely fought second half, the Orange outscored the Cardinals 32-30 to win the game by two points.
''I thought both teams played incredibly hard,'' Orange coach Jim Boeheim said. ''There were opportunities where we could've gotten discouraged. Michael turned it over for a layup. He made some mistakes, but he is a big-time player."
''It was great, but now we can forget about it and try to get ready for Cincinnati on Monday night.''
The Cardinals started the week with No. 1 ranking, only the second time in the school's history, but ended with a defeat.
''I'd rather have the No. 1 ranking at the end of the year,'' Louisville guard Peyton Siva said. ''I really don't mind having the No. 1 ranking at all. We're going to work our way back up to that spot and hopefully get it at the end of the year.''
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