Louisville Defeats Wake 74-48 in Quarterfinals

THIS was the Louisville team that we’ve been hoping to see all season. With the exception of a small mental breakdown in the second quarter, the Cards played tenacious defense and shot the ball well and just overall played a complete game to win their first post-season game of 2023.

At the end of the first quarter the score was Hailey Van Lith - 17 and Wake Forest - 8. She came out blazing and finished the game with 26 points. CC Carr moved back into the starting lineup and scored 16 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, and had 2 assists. Mykasa Robinson had 10 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Coach Walz said, “It’s March now and that’s something that we have taken pride in here in this program is the energy gets turned up... my intensity gets turned up.” He talked about the last week in practice and said, “The last few days if I had coached like that the entire year I might not have anybody on the team.... We work really hard on building relationships with all the young ladies so that they know basketball is basketball, but off the court I’m going to treat them like they’re my own kids and I can promise you my own kids don’t like me all the time.” However he added, “I’m very appreciative of all of them it was a fun three days of practice and then we played like we practiced.”

CC said, “I think just being aggressive from the start really set the tone for us and we just kept it going throughout all four quarters.” Coach Walz added, “Except for that little stretch there in the 2nd quarter, the way we came out in that 3rd quarter is exactly how we have to play.” Mykasa said, “We definitely came in like we don’t want that [losing in the first game] to happen again so I think just the mentality that we’ve been waiting for a game like this all year just to put it together. It’s exciting to see that happen for us and I’m ready for it to carry over.”

Next up the Cards play the winner of Notre Dame/NC State on Saturday at noon. The game can be seen on the ACC Network.