Don’t sleep on the Cards

In Tuesday’s ACC Action, Louisville crushed Syracuse 85-61 and Clemson handled Georgia Tech 70-59.

It was just not a good night for Syracuse. Louisville led almost the entire game and Chucky Hepburn just tied Orange star JJ Starling in knots.

Starling shot 1-7, finishing with four points. He had four assists and six turnovers. After the game he was so frustrated that he vowed “never again.”

Syracuse is lacking Donnie Freeman but still, Louisville played with a lot more heart.

Hepburn finished with 24, Terrence Edwards had 16 and J’Vonne Hartley 13. James Scott and Reyne Smith had 10.

And Louisville is getting better from three point range, one of their early weaknesses. They were 12-28 in this one, outscoring Syracuse 36-24 from deep.

This was Louisville’s seventh straight win. The Cards are now 13-5 and 6-1 in the ACC to 8-and Joe Lunardi now has them as an eight seed. Pat Kelsey is now the odds-on favorite for ACC Coach of the Year too.

As for Syracuse, the Orange fall to 8-9 and 2-4 in the conference.

We didn't realize how much of a problem injuries are right now for Georgia Tech with Lance Terry, Kowacie Reeves and Luke O’Brien all out against Clemson.

Georgia Tech competed but it was too much to overcome. And of course Clemson’s defense is no joke - the Tigers always go hard on that end.

The Tigers pulled ahead in the first half and while Georgia Tech cut the lead to 37-30 not long after the half, the Yellow Jackets could not catch up.

Ian Schieffelin more or less got back to his normal level of play with 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Jaeden Zackery had 21 points and six boards while Chase Hunter added 14.

The Yellow Jackets, down to a rotation of just seven players, moved Ryan Mutombo back to the bench and he played just five minutes, so the effective rotation was just six.

Without Terry, who is Tech’s leading scorer, Baye Ndongo stepped up with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Naithan George had 13 points and four assists while Javian McCollum finished with 11 points and five assists.

We haven’t watched Georgia Tech closely but our sense was that Damon Stoudamire was trying to run Mutombo in the post and have Ndongo play forward.

He might be able to do that; he just seems more comfortable in the post.

Five games on tap for Wednesday as Stanford visits Wake Forest, Cal drops by Chapel Hill, NC State heads up to Virginia Tech, SMU makes the trek to Virginia and Pitt goes down to Florida State.

Wednesday’s ACC Action

• Stanford @ Wake Forest || 6:30 || ESPNEWS
• Cal @ UNC || 7:00 || ACCN
• NC State @ Virginia Tech || 7:00 || ESPNU
• SMU @ Virginia || 9:00 || ACCN
• Pitt @ Florida State || 9:00 || ESPNU

ACC Standings

• Overheard after Syracuse basketball’s loss to Louisville: ‘I’m not the whole team’
• BOZICH | Louisville streaks to 7th straight win, dominating Syracuse, 85-61
• Louisville decks Syracuse 85-61 for a seventh straight victory
• Fizz Report Card: Syracuse Gets Embarrassed By Louisville 85-61
• Syracuse basketball dreadful on both ends of the floor in bad home loss to Louisville
• Jackets battle back from slow start but can’t keep up with Clemson in loss
• Jaeden Zackery’s breakout game propels Clemson past Georgia Tech
• Clemson basketball vs Georgia Tech final score: Jaeden Zackery scores 21 points in road win
• Clemson bruises short-handed Georgia Tech in road conference win

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Stargazers were treated to a total lunar eclipse overnight Thursday. The eclipse could be seen in the Capital Region for about an hour starting around 2:30 a.m.

Lunar eclipses happen when the moon is completely covered by the earth’s shadow. Rather than disappearing behind the shadow, the moon takes on a reddish-orange color. This leads some to call it a “Blood Moon.”

This photo was taken by viewer Michael O'Gara in Hudson. He said he took the photo using a homemade reflecting telescope.

NEWS10 was also able to get video of the lunar eclipse from our station in Albany. You can see it in the video player above.