Louisville Defeats Pitt 66-55

This is one of those games that even though Louisville won by double digits it didn’t really feel like a victory. Perhaps it’s because the last time these two teams played in January the Cards won by a healthy 42 point margin. Tonight the game was tied 35-35 halfway through the 3rd quarter and Louisville had to go on a run to even take a 7 point lead into the the 4th. Of course as Coach Stephanie Norman said after the game, “We didn’t play a very intelligent game tonight... but the great thing is at the end of the day we won. That’s what matters this time of year. You get no style points.” However she also pointed out, “We were 2 of 16 from 3 and 10 from 19 from the free throw line. That’s not going to win you many games.”

Emily Engstler had yet another double-double with 17 points and 15 rebounds. The Cards were out-rebounded 53-41 so all of those 15 were crucial to victory. Hailey Van Lith had 13 points. Olivia Cochran had 9 points and 5 rebounds.

Coach Norman praised the play of Peyton Verhulst: “I thought Peyton had a great night tonight. If she didn’t get the rebound she was crashing and putting pressure on the opposition. She just did all the little things. She had a bunch of threes across the board... 3 rebounds, 3 points, 3 assists, 2 steals. It was a really good boost off the bench.”

As the Cards head into the last game of the regular season Coach Norman said, “It’s no more ‘my bad’ and ‘we’ll get ‘em the next time’ thing. The stakes are high now and so I’m hoping that our team realizes the game on Sunday is going to be a dog fight. It will certainly not be the Notre Dame team we saw when they came into our place.” The game is in South Bend on the 27th at noon and can be seen on ESPN2.