Louisville Drops One to Duke 63-56

With 4 minutes left in the game today Louisville cut a 9 point Duke lead to 2 off of a rare 3 pointer from Olivia Cochran and seemed to be gaining momentum. Two minutes later Duke threw up a Hail Mary three-pointer that banked in to give the Blue Devils a 10 point lead. Those couple of minutes encapsulated most of this game. Any time the Cards looked like they might be ready to take the lead Duke would get a lucky bounce and take advantage of it.

Hailey Van Lith led all scorers with 23. Olivia Cochran had 8 points and 5 rebounds. Liz Dixon had no points but 8 rebounds.

After the game Associate Coach Jonneshia Pineda spoke with Nick Curran. “It was back and forth and the biggest thing that stands out to me was the turnovers. We had 12 in the first half and 5 in the second. We beat them points-wise in the seconds half. We out-rebounded them [32-28] but you can’t have 17 turnovers especially on the road. Duke did a great job making us make quick decisions.” She added, “In the first half we had 11 shot attempts and 12 turnovers.... we made some plays in the end they just made more than we did.”

Mykasa Robinson returned to play and had a little rust but also her presence made a big difference especially defensively. Coach Pineda said, “She means so much to our team.... She was great. Four assists, 2 steals, she had 2 rebounds and she may have practiced one time this week. Her impact on the game is different than just points. I think our players, and obviously CardNation, appreciate having her out there today.”

She also praised the play of Olivia Cochran. On the three she said, “The whole bench yelled ‘shoot it!’ and she turned around and was like ‘I got y’all.’ She knocked it down. O played a solid game for us. She got in foul trouble early and she came back in and provided energy.”

She said, “Road wins are hard in the ACC but this game right here it came down to the wire. We made some huge plays in the 4th quarter.... We’re going to learn and we’re going to get better and we will capitalize on situations like this.”

Next up the Cards meet Georgia Tech on Thursday night at home. The game is at 8 p.m. and can be seen on the ACC Network.