Undefeated no longer: Takeaways from the first loss for Louisville women’s basketball

They fought hard but ultimately fell to #4 North Carolina State. Takeaways from the Louisville women’s basketball program’s first loss of the 2020-21 season.

Well, it’s time to write the article I was hoping I wouldn’t have to write this season. This matchup was set up to be #1 Louisville women’s basketball versus #2 until NC State lost this past Thursday. Still, it may have been one of the biggest matchups of the season in college basketball.

#1 versus #4, the best two teams in the ACC. NC State the, #2 offense in the ACC visiting Louisville, the #1 offense in the ACC. Each team put a member of the midseason list for the Wooden Award on the floor in this game. Elissa Cunane from NC State and Dana Evans from Louisville.

This game truly lived up to the hype with it being a highly contested game through 3 quarters, with NC State pulling away in the fourth for the 14 point win over the Cardinals.

Here are my three takeaways from the game.

What happened to the help Dana Evans has had this season?

It may have been different people throughout games this season, but at least one person always came up big to help Dana Evans out in games. No one else came to play offensively in this game to help take some of the pressure off of Evans. Still, Evans put up another dominant performance, pushing her closer to the ACC Player of The Year Award. Despite being hounded all night, Evans scored a game high 29 points on 10-22 shooting from the field and 5-8 from three point range.

The Cards; second-leading scorer was Olivia Cochran and Kianna Smith, who both finished the game with 8 points each. Hailey Van Lith and Kianna Smith were the only other Louisville players with double-digit shot attempts. Smith and Elizabeth Balogun were the only other two Cards to hit a three-pointer, with Smith leading the way going 2-6 and Balogun making 1-3.

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Hello, depth. Are you still there?

All season Louisville has built itself on the fact that they are throwing everyone on the roster at you to wear you down. This is the third of the last four games that the rotation has been down to a single-digit number of players.

Jeff Walz only utilized nine players against Syracuse and Wake Forest, while only playing eight players versus NC State. Louisville’s depth could have been a great advantage to them against an NC State team that only played seven players. Unfortunately, there never was an opportunity to get into a rhythm.

The Louisville bench even going 10-11 deep has logged a lot of minutes this season and could have been very beneficial to wearing the Wolfpack down. Rotations shrink in basketball, it’s a part of the game. However, when the bench shrinks and the players playing provide less, there’s a bit of an issue. That’s what happened against NC State and moving forward, the players coming off of the bench simply have to give the Cards more.

Louisville women’s basketball still on the right track

Ever since they claimed the #1 ranking this is the result Louisville has been headed toward.

The Syracuse, Wake Forest, and Miami games were nail-biters till the end, but luckily the Cards had enough star power to outlast those three opponents. In the North Carolina game, Louisville had a huge lead after three quarters, allowing them to outlast the final surge in the 4th quarter.

NC State is too good of a team for that, and it showed in this game. Louisville has played tight and under pressure trying to hold on to that number one ranking and they couldn’t get the job done in this one. The Wolf Pack had four of their seven players finish in double figures, while outrebounding the Cards 44-29. Louisville did shoot better from three-point range, but overall, NC State shot better from the field.

I, as much as anyone, was hoping for an undefeated run to a National Championship this season, but its not going to happen. Louisville showed their youth and inexperience in this game against a veteran NC State team. I guess we can throw in a few of the old sayings to get us going again.

We can add “You live and you learn” or we can go with “dust yourself off and get back up.” Either way you look at it the Cards took their first L, so hopefully, now the pressure is off. Time to move on and go forward because the goal at the end of the season is still the same, a National Championship.

The Cards will travel to Boston College on Thursday February 4th. Game time will be 8 p.m., and the game can be seen on the ACCN. You can also listen to the game in Louisville on 790 WKRD.