Louisville women’s basketball the lone unbeaten top 25 program following UNC victory. Full reaction to Cards win.
They say the third times a charm, and it actually was for the Louisville women’s basketball program vs. North Carolina.
After two postponements the teams finally met, and Louisville looked to get their mojo back after a few subpar games. The night was shaping up as an upset evening as #2 NC State went down, and UCONN fell during the Louisville game. All the Cards had to do was handle their business, and they would be the lone undefeated team in the top 25.
Louisville jumped on the Tar Heels early and got out to a huge lead, but UNC clawed back and made it a game.
So I was going to do a takeaway about our big lead collapsing in the fourth quarter, but I figure I was hard enough the last two games so we will stay positive on this one.
Here are my three takeaways from the game.
Hailey Van Lith’s mojo is back
I am going to go ahead and point out that yes I have been hard on her performance the last 2 games, but she is a superstar so it was deserving of critique.
Hailey came out quick and hit 3 three-pointers in the first quarter. She ended up with 11 points for the game on 4-11 shooting from the field and 3-8 from three-point range. She also grabbed 2 rebounds and dished out 4 assists, putting together a well-rounded performance.
I know it’s not tremendous numbers, but compared to the last 2 games it really was. HVL logged the second-most minutes on the team with 31 and only committed 2 fouls. I think 2 fouls in 31 minutes for an aggressive on-ball defender is pretty dang good.
Front court shows the guards aren’t the only superstar
Elizabeth Dixon has come out of her shell from last year and became a force for the Cards off the bench. She has gotten into double figures in 6 of the Cards 16 games this season, while coming up 1 point shy of her career-high versus Miami.
Dixon put up 13 points in this game on 5-10 shooting from the field and 3-3 from the free-throw line. tallying a season-high 28 minutes against UNC. She went all the way across the stat line grabbing 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, and 1 steal. Star freshman Olivia Cochran came up big again for the Cards. Cochran scored 17 points on 7-10 shooting from the field and 1-2 from three-point range. Cochran was right behind HVL with 30 minutes played in the game. She also tied for the team lead in rebounding with 7 boards and added 2 assists and 2 blocks.
The stars are in the backcourt, we all know that. Still, the work put in by Cochran and Dixon this season has been instrumental to the program’s success.
Elizabeth Balogun is Louisville women’s basketball’s workhorse
I guess if you want a comparison, then Elizabeth Balogun is to this team what Dwayne Sutton was to the men’s team last season. Balogun does everything during the game and shows up in the box score everywhere. Against North Carolina, she scored 10 points on 3-6 shooting from the field and 2-3 shooting from the free-throw line. Balogun matched Cochran with 7 rebounds and led the team with 5 assists.
I know the Cards were outscored in the fourth quarter 22-8, and things looked sketchy. I didn’t want to dwell on that after this game. Instead, I’ll focus on playing good enough in 3 quarters to lose the 4th and still win by 11. They weren’t perfect by any means. Yet six players scored in double-figures and everyone who played made an impact. This goes to show the depth and top-to-bottom talent built by Jeff Walz.
You can catch the Louisville women’s basketball in action again on Monday February 1st at home versus no longer undefeated NC State at 7 p.m. Yes I put the no longer undefeated in there to be petty, it’s what I do.
You can watch Monday’s game on ESPN2 and listen on 790 KRD.
