Louisville women’s basketball survives Northwestern to advance to Sweet 16

Louisville women’s basketball advances to Sweet 16 with big second half against Northwestern.

The game started as though I was going to be writing a much different article. To begin the game, Louisville women’s basketball came out very unprepared. Northwestern ran a zone, and Louisville had a hard time adjusting. Northwestern showed early why they led the nation in turnover margin. The Wildcats forced 21 turnovers per game, and while only committing 10 this season.

The Louisville women’s basketball curse also holds where a bad shooting team can’t miss against the Cards. Northwestern shot 40% from the field on the season, and 26% from three on the season. They shot 64% from the field and 100% from three during the first quarter. This all led to Louisville looking at an 18 point deficit in the first half. Louisville turned up the defensive pressure and settled in during the second half to squeak out a 62-53 win to advance to the Sweet 16.

Here are my takeaways from the Cardinals second-round victory.

Louisville struggled out of the gate for the second straight game

It seems like after the rough start against Marist it was just tournament jitters and Louisville would be alright against Northwestern. That just was not the case.

Louisville came out in this game and just looked lost on both ends of the floor. The Wildcats punched the Cardinals in the face right from the jump and Louisville didn’t know what to do. I will admit Northwestern has an excellent defensive strategy, and they played it to perfection at the beginning of the game. At one point Louisville had 7 made field goals and 8 turnovers. Silly mistakes really backed the Cards into a corner throughout the first half. Louisville’s 20 points were its lowest-scoring first half of the season.

To be playing a much smaller team, Louisville didn’t go inside a lot at the beginning of the game. The Northwestern defense had Louisville confused, and they kept settling for jumpers. When they would drive, or pass it inside there would either be a turnover or missed layup. Even rebounding had it’s problems. I couldn’t count how many rebounds the Louisville players let slip through their hands and out of bounds. Even Dana Evans let a pass slip through her hands and out of bounds. The small mistakes just kept adding up and advancing to the Sweet 16 wasn’t looking good for Louisville, until the second half.

Louisville uses second half surge to survive and advance

I don’t know what coach Jeff Walz says to his team at halftime, but it keeps working. For how lost and inept the Cardinals looked in the first half, it looked like a completely different team in the second half. Louisville used a 12-0 run to end the third quarter to tie the game at 40 all. Louisville didn’t allow any fast break points to Northwestern through the entire third quarter. You could tell as Louisville was locking in on the offensive and defensive ends that they weren’t going to let this get away from them.

One good thing about this second-half run is that it was done with the majority of the points coming from players not named Dana Evans.

Kianna Smith was very instrumental in bringing the Cards back. Smith scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half as she really found her shot. Louisville also started using their full-court press and throwing fresh bodies out to wear the Wildcats down.

With Northwestern not being a very deep team, it was only a matter of time before that happened. As the Wildcats got worn down it seemed like life came into the Cardinals. This all resulted in Louisville doubling up Northwestern in the second half 42-21 to secure the victory. Also instrumental in helping to secure the victory was Louisville’s two star freshmen.

Hailey Van Lith and Olivia Cochran came up big

Hailey Van Lith had a huge tournament debut in the first round win versus Marist, and she didn’t slow down in the second round either. Van Lith missed some time in the first half because of foul trouble, but she made up for it in the second half. HVL followed her 17 point great shooting night performance with another one for the ages. Van Lith scored 13 points against Northwestern and was perfect from everywhere. HVL was 4-4 from the field, 2-2 from three-point range, and 3-3 from the free-throw line. The freshman star showed she has ice in her veins as she made a huge three to push the Cardinal lead out to 6 with 3:46 to go in the game.

It took a little while for Olivia Cochran to get going, but once she did there was no stopping her. The freshman ended the game with her fifth double-double of the season. Cochran had 13 points and a career high 15 rebounds. Once Louisville started getting the ball inside to Cochran she just played bully ball with the smaller Wildcat team. Cochran did most of her scoring from the free throw line as she hit 7 of her 9 attempts. Also of her 15 rebounds, 10 came from the defensive end.

These two freshmen are going to be legendary by the time they leave UofL. They came in highly recruited, and they have shown why this season. Both players have been very integral parts of the Cardinals season, and I see that being a pattern over the next three years.

Previewing the Sweet 16 matchup with the Oregon Ducks

In the Sweet 16, Louisville women’s basketball will face the 6 seed Oregon Ducks. It will be the sixth meeting between the two ball teams, with Louisville holding the advantage 3-2. Louisville has won the last three meetings including a 72-62 win in November 2019. Oregon will have a new challenge for Louisville as they bring in a force down low. This force being the 6’7″ Sedona Prince.

There haven’t been too many games that the duo of Olivia Cochran and Liz Dixon will be the smaller of the inside players. Cochran and Dixon will surely have their work cut out for them, but so will the rest of the team

Oregon is solid on both ends of the floor. The Ducks score 72 points per game, while only allowing 59. Oregon shoots 45% from the field, and 36% from three.

The Ducks defense only allows opponents to shoot 37% from the field, and 30% from three. Louisville’s offensive stats are about the same as Oregon’s stats. The Cardinals’ defensive stats are a little better than that of Oregon. It should be a really good game as long as Louisville comes to play. We are at the point of the tournament where Louisville can not afford to come out as slow as they did in the first two rounds.

You can catch the 2 seed Louisville Cardinals take on the 6 seed Oregon Ducks Sunday March 28th at 7pm on ESPN.

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