Louisville Closes Out 2023 with a Win -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Walz Remains Undefeated in Coral Gables with Win

Kiki Jefferson scored her 2,000th career point and Jayda Curry scored her 1,000th career point as Louisville women's basketball closed out the 2023 calendar year with a 77-72 win at Miami.

Merissah Russell was clutch and scored all 12 of her points in the second half, going 3-3 from three-point range. Jayda Curry shot 7-12 for a team-high 19 points. Nyla Harris posted a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Playing in their first game following the Christmas break, Louisville looked like it didn't miss a bit on the offensive end, closing out the opening quarter with 20 points, Defensively, the Cards looked to be a bit rusty and gave up 23 points to Miami. Harris' layup at the buzzer kept the deficit within one.

Miami would score the first five points of the second quarter before the Cards went on an 8-0 run for a one-point advantage. Neither team could pull ahead by more than three the remainder of the corner at went into halftime tied 37-37.

Like the second quarter, the third quarter proved to be a battle back-and-forth. The Cards went up by five right after the media timeout but would need a pair of free throws by Curry to retake the lead to close out the quarter.

Miami held a four-point lead with 6:08 remaining in the game. The Cards would allow surrender five more points the rest of the way while hitting a pair of threes and four free throws along with a couple short range jumpers to pull out the win. Russell scored eight of the final 14 points.

F-R-E-D Report

Free Throws: 16-21 is a bit under Louisville's average but 76.2% is above the minimum requirement mark. We'll award the Cards a lowercase "f".

Rebounds: Louisville won the rebounding battle by a +7 margin. Six players logged a board with Harris leading the team with 12. Plenty of reason for a capital "R".

Effort/Efficiency: Louisville opted to limit their three-point attempts but made the most, going 5-9 beyond the arc. 12 assists on 28 made shots is a bit under what we hope to see, especially since only seven points (three baskets) came on fast break. The one area of concern is 22 turnovers, many coming off of travels or overthrows in the post. Let's hope that was just needing to clean things up following an extended break. We'll give them a lowercase "e".

Defense: Well, cracking down on defense down the stretch to pull out the win is nice, but giving up 72 points is no bueno. The Cards committed 18 fouls and allowed Miami to shoot nearly 50% from the field. Louisville did force 20 turnovers and gave up just nine second chance points. We'll award a lowercase "d".

f-R-e-d isn't bad for the first game back after two weeks, but won't win you a ton of games in conference play. But hey, a win is a win and whether you win by one or 100 it's still a win.

Jeff Walz is now 5-0 in Coral Gables in his tenure and the Cards ruined Miami's 23-0 record at home in 2023 with just a few hours left in the year.

Louisville improves to 12-2 and opens up ACC play 1-0. They return home to the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday at 8:00pm against Duke.

A win is a great way to close out 2023. Don't forget that the Cards opened up 2023 with a loss before going on to make an Elite Eight and have now had a hot start to this season. 

Happy Monday, Happy New Year, and Go Cards!

Jared