Cards Handle Pitt 77-53

Louisville opened ACC play slowly in the first quarter. Fortunately Pitt started off even slower. Pitt got their first field goal of the game with only 1:29 left in the quarter. Despite that, the Cards only carried a 19-12 lead into the 2nd. Part of that was attributable to Morgan Jones being on the bench with 2 early fouls.

However in the 2nd quarter things started to click and by the time the buzzer sounded for halftime Louisville was up 39-19. Pitt wouldn’t seriously challenge for the rest of the game. Coach Walz said, “It’s a great road win. A great way to start off ACC play. You’ve got to steal as many on the road as you can.”

Hailey Van Lith led all scorers with 20. She also had 4 assists and 4 rebounds. Olivia Cochran had a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds in 24 minutes of play. Liz Dixon had 8 points and 5 rebounds.

The one persistent problem Louisville has had this year is turnovers and today they had 20. Coach Walz said, “We’ve got to cut down on turnovers.... some of them we just get ripped from us. Liz goes 4 for 4 and has 8 points and she easily could’ve been 6 for 7 but got the ball ripped out of her hands way too often. We’ve got to get stronger and tougher on that.” He did, however, say the rebounding is improving from where it was at the start of the season.

Mykasa Robinson was out again today but Norika Konno did see some action. Coach Walz said, “Norika played some nice minutes. In the first half she makes a beautiful pass to CC [Carr] for the 3. I was excited that she felt she was able to go today.”

Next up the Cards travel to Chicago to take on DePaul [DePaul Day!]. The game is Wednesday the 21st at 8:30 and can be seen on FS1.