Louisville outlasts Washington, 61-53

The game started out close, but in the third quarter the Cards looked like they were going to run away with it. Going into the 4th quarter the score was 54-38 and Louisville seemed to be in the groove. But just as quickly they jumped the groove. They seemed to be doing an experiment to see if they could not score in the last quarter and still win the game.

Finally with 2:42 left in the game they got their 55th point off of a Hailey Van Lith free throw and managed to do enough defensively to come away with a 61-53 win.

Kianna Smith and Liz Dixon led Louisville in scoring with 13 each. Kianna had some pretty assists to Liz to start a run in the first half and she finished the game with 3. Hailey Van Lith had several shots go in and out but she finished with 11 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. As a team Louisville forced 20 more turnovers than the Huskies.

After the game Coach Walz spoke with Nick Curran. When asked about his team down the stretch he said, “That may have been possibly the ugliest quarter of basketball that we’ve ever played here in my fifteen years. I’m not sure we’ve scored less in a quarter.” He added, “We’ve just got to get a little bit smarter basketball IQ when the advantage is our favor to go at it. When you’ve got somebody who’s made a couple of shot go back to them.”

He complimented the play of Liz Dixon off the bench. “I was really, really happy for Liz. She’s automatic. She’s one of the best 6 to 8 foot reverse pivot baseline shooters in the country and she finally went to it. Instead of trying to make 16 posts moves that she’s not good at — and that’s ok — I try to explain to them everybody’s not good at everything so what you’re good at do it!”

He finished with, “At the end of the day you’ve got to figure out a way to win and we won.”

Next up the Cards travel to California to play Cal Poly in a homecoming for Kianna Smith. The game is this Tuesday at 8PM.