Louisville women’s basketball ends regular season in style

Louisville women’s basketball wins big in South Bend to end regular season. Three big takeaways from the win.

After a subpar offensive performance on Thursday at Pittsburgh, the Louisville women’s basketball team fixed those problems before Sunday.

The Louisville women’s basketball team traveled to South Bend on Sunday and ruined Senior Day for Notre Dame. Louisville came out of the gate hot and never slowed down. The Cards did it on both ends of the court ending the first quarter up 31-3. The second quarter was no different as Louisville continued to pile it on going into halftime up 54-15, leading by as much as a hysterical 45-4 margin.

As the second half started the Cards kind of took their foot off the gas a little on the offensive end.

Louisville only shot 2 three-pointers in the whole second half, missing both. Louisville would end the third quarter up 71-34. The fourth quarter would see Coach Walz empty the bench with Sydni Shetnan, Ramani Parker, and Merissah Russell getting some playing time. The game would end in an 86-64 Cardinal victory.

Here are my takeaways from the regular-season finale at Notre Dame.

The big three showed why they are the big three

As everyone asked coming into the season who would step in to fill the shoes of star Dana Evans, they got their answer in three people. Seniors Kianna Smith and Emily Engstler along with Sophomore Hailey Van Lith have been the constant leaders for the Louisville women’s basketball team.

The trio leads the Cardinals in points per game, and three-point percentage. Engstler also leads the team in rebounds per game.

In the regular-season finale, the trio was on another level. We have seen plenty of games where one or two of them went off, but all three showed up big time at Notre Dame. The Irish saw Van Lith and Smith both score 20, while Engstler added 17 points of her own. All three were very efficient on the offensive end. Van Lith was 8-15 from the floor and 4-5 from three-point range. Smith was 9-16 from the field and 2-4 from three-point range. Engstler was 8-11 from the field and 1-3 from three-point range.

Norika Konno finally back with the team

As the season approached, one of the headlines was everyone expected a breakout season for junior Norika Konno. Konno began the season having a solid season off the bench for the Cardinals. Konno along with senior Mykasa Robinson were the first two Cardinals to go into Covid protocol. As the rest of the team went into protocol, Konno was the only player that didn’t rejoin the team when they came out of protocol.

The last time Louisville fans saw Konno was the January 16th game against Boston College. When Coach Walz was asked about Konno’s availability he would just say she was out for medical reasons. The team gave Konno time to take care of her medical issues and wasn’t sure if she would rejoin the team this season or not.

Senior Day would be the first time Louisville fans would see Konno in the Yum Center since that Boston College game. Even though not dressed to play, she just helped with warmups and cheered the team on from the bench. The regular-season finale would see Konno finally dressed and cleared to play. Konno got in the game and logged seven and a half minutes against Notre Dame. The junior was 1-1 from the floor for 2 points. Even though Konno didn’t stuff the stat sheet it was great seeing the fan-favorite on the court healthy again.

What the win today means for the rest of the season

The win at South Bend means Louisville has locked up the number 2 seed in the ACC tournament. The Cardinals finish the season 25-3 overall and 16-2 in the ACC.

Louisville will get the double-bye and play their first ACC tournament game Friday night at 6 pm. The win also keeps Louisville in the hunt for a 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

If there are upsets in other conference tournaments it is not out of the realm of possibility that Louisville and NC State both get a 1-seed.