Louisville women’s basketball claims fourth straight ACC regular season title in season finale
Senior night in South Bend didn’t go the way the Notre Dame seniors was hoping it would. The Louisville women’s basketball team jumped on the Irish early, and never slowed down.
It was an offensive showcase in the Cardinal’s 78-61 win at Notre Dame to lock up Louisville’s fourth straight regular-season title. The Cards did a little switching up to the starting lineup in this game with Ahlana Smith getting the start over Mykasa Robinson.
After the game head coach Jeff Walz said, “He let the players draw names out of a shopping bag to determine the starting lineup. They would have done rock, paper, scissors but it would have taken too long.” Walz also stated, ” The team will do this for the ACC tournament also.”
Here are my takeaways from Sunday’s win at Notre Dame.
The Louisville offense got rolling
The Louisville women’s basketball program came out in this game versus Notre Dame with something to prove. After only scoring 59 points in their loss to FSU last Sunday, the Cards went +19 against Notre Dame on Sunday.
Louisville came out and saw three players get into double figures in the first half. Dana Evans dropped 14, Liz Dixon with 10, and Kianna Smith with 10. The Cards also shot 57% from the field and 36% from three in the first half.
The offensive tear didn’t end at halftime as two other Cards joined them in double figures. Hailey Van Lith and Mykasa Robinson both ended the game with 10 points. Louisville ended the game shooting 51% from the field, and 28% from three. 7 of the 10 Cards that got minutes scored at least 2 points.
Evans led all scorers with 26 on 9-18 from the field, and 2-7 from three point range. While the starters did their thing on the offensive end, the bench players came in and really provided a spark. Louisville got 32 points from their bench players in the game. The Louisville bench was 1 point away from tying the Notre Dame starters scoring.
The Cards scoring was fueled by 16 assists on 32 made field goals, and only committing 12 turnovers. Louisville women’s basketball also scored 25 points off ND turnovers, 13 fast break points, and 38 points in the paint. 25 points off turnovers is huge because turning your defense into offense is how runs happen.
Mykasa Robinson was just your usual Mykasa Robinson
I am going to have a “Mykasa Robinson take” in every game until someone makes me stop because she deserves her own section. Robinson’s motor and intensity are at level 100 as long as she is on the floor. Typically I am going to start this off with what a great defensive performance Robinson had, but not in this takeaway. We are gonna start on the other end of the floor for this one.
Robinson, who is not really know for her offense, came to play on the offensive end in this game. The junior scored a career high 10 points on 5-5 shooting from the field. I think Robinson has heard enough this season that she is an offensive liability, and is ready to start proving people wrong. Robinson also helped get her teammates going as she dished out 4 assists.
Now we will get to the end of the floor where Robinson shines, the defensive end. Robinson’s only 2 rebounds were defensive rebounds, and she led the Cards with 3 steals. Now on to the stat that I think is impressive, but doesn’t show up in the stat sheets. Robinson was responsible for taking 5 charges in the game. This is an overlooked stat that Robinson is really good at getting. She has such great foot work and positioning on the defensive end that she makes it extremely hard for the other team to get around her. This is why she will be up for ACC Defensive POY, and in my opinion should win the award.
The Louisville defense played really well
As much as we give all the props to the Louisville women’s basketball offense, we can’t forget they have a good defense. The Louisville players work hard on defense, and have more than one player that can guard positions 1-5. The Cards came into the game ready to work, and work is what they did on the defensive end.
The Louisville defense only allowed 2 Irish players to reach double figures, which is an awesome stat to help your team get the W. Louisville had their perimeter defense going as they only allowed Notre Dame to make 5 threes in the game, and shoot 33% which is under their season percentage. The Cardinal defense only allowed ND to get 2 fast break points in the game. This stat is also a hat tip to the Louisville offense limiting their turnovers.
Louisville had 21 of their 28 total rebounds on the defensive end. This allowed the Cards to limit the Irish second chance points to only 13. Notre Dame had more than double the Louisville turnovers as they gave the ball back to the Cardinals 25 times. 10 of the turnovers came off of Louisville steals. The Cardinals also had 4 blocks in the game, and only committed 14 personal fouls.
What to look for heading into championship week
After earning their fourth straight regular-season championship, Louisville will head into the ACC tournament the #1 seed. The Cards’ first game will be a noon contest on Friday, March 5th against the winner of 8 seed UNC and 9 seed Wake Forest.
Wake Forest played the Louisville tough in their only matchup this season.
It took end of game heroics to overcome a deficit in the finals seconds to pick up the win. The UNC game was a different type of scare at the end. Louisville was dominating that whole game until things went sideways.
The Cards were up 30 with 3:40 to go in the third quarter when they let the Tar Heels go on a run. Louisville ended up winning by 11, but it was a huge collapse by the defense at the end of the game. I don’t really see any fear of an upset in this game, but it’s called March Madness for a reason.
If Louisville makes it past the quarterfinals, then their semi-final matchup will be Saturday at noon. Barring any upsets, Louisville will matchup with 4 seed Florida State. If Louisville gets to see FSU in this semi-finals matchup, the Cardinals will be looking to exact revenge for FSU handing them their second loss of the season.
The Cards will also be looking to get back at FSU for ending their ACC championship hopes in the semi-finals of the 2019 ACC tournament. On a neutral court with 13 days from the last time they met, I don’t see an FSU win coming this time.
ACC Tournament and beyond
In a chalk tournament you will get a rematch of the powerhouses in the finals. #1 seed Louisville, and #2 seed NC State. After the Cardinals took a 14 point beating at the hands of NC State a month ago Louisville will have to come ready to play in this one.
This game will not just be for the ACC championship, but also for the NCAA tournament seeding also. Right now the committee has Louisville a 3 seed and NC State a 2 seed, but with the loss of Arizona on Sunday that should mean both are a 2 seed at the moment. With UCONN and Stanford locks for 1 seed, that leaves the other 2 that could be up for grabs. In my opinion, those two 1 seeds should go to the winners of the SEC and ACC tournaments.
This is the month this deep and talented UofL team has been preparing for all year. With no truly dominant team out there, I believe this the Coach Walz’s best shot at a national championship.
I can’t skip ahead of the ACC tournament though because it is a very talented conference at the top. Things begin Wednesday, March 3rd, and conclude Sunday, March 7th.
