Cards Stun Blue Devils in Cameron -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Beats #11 Duke 70-62

Louisville women's basketball weathered a third quarter comeback to hang on and become the first team not named Duke to win at Cameron Indoor Stadium this season. Coming into the game, the Blue Devils' men's and women's teams were a combined 26-0 at home, with Kara Lawson's squad sporting an 11-0 record. The Cards got clutch minutes from Merissah Russell late in the game and saw Jayda Curry score a season-high 24 points as they moved to 12-3 in conference and hold the tiebreaker over FSU, Duke, and Cal for the fourth seed in the ACC tournament with three games to play.

Louisville got off to an inauspicious start in this one, opening the game with a shotclock violation. The offense didn't get much better for the Cards in the first quarter, as they made just one of their first nine shots. Coupled with a pair of free throws, Louisville had four points in the first seven minutes of the game. They returned to equilibrium a bit over the last three minutes of the quarter by making four of six, including a three from Elif Istanbulluoglu (the first of the game for either team) to finish the quarter with 13. Duke, who shot 44% from the floor in the quarter, had just 14, as they made only two-point baskets, didn't get to the line, and matched Louisville's three turnovers.

The second quarter was a comedy of errors, and I mean that literally. Louisville finished with seven turnovers in the quarter, which actually paled in comparison to Duke's 10. The Cards found a bit more rhythm offensively, shooting 8/16 from the floor and picking up two more free throws. Where they really did their damage was the three point line. Louisville was 4/6 from beyond the arc in the quarter, while Duke was just 1/4. Those makes included a pair by Jayda Curry, with one coming off balance as the shot clock wound down, and one from Mackenly Randolph to improve her season mark to 2/17 from three. Duke, to their credit, was 7/10 from the floor, going 100% from two, but the turnovers and inability to get to the free throw line allowed Louisville to take a six-point lead into the locker room at 35-29.

The Cards came out of the break determined to continue the sloppy basketball on display in the second quarter, but the Blue Devils appeared to have gotten their yips out of the way. Louisville committed eight more turnovers in the third, while Duke had just four. The wheels came off a bit for the referee crew (which had Louisville favorites Dee Kanter and Billy Smith as part of it)  in this quarter, if you ask me, with both teams getting away with various fouls and violations while simultaneously falling victim to ghost calls. To add to their troubles, Louisville was just 4/9 from the floor with another strong mark from Duke, who went 8/17. The Blue Devils last shot fell through the net as time expired to tie the game and reset the board going into the fourth. 45-all.

Pam Ward (who is committed to saying Louisville incorrectly and as frequently as possible) and Stephanie White continually spoke on the broadcast about Louisville being able to push the defense and make Duke commit fouls. While this was anticipated to be a strongly contested defensive battle, Duke is susceptible to foul trouble. That began to roost early in the fourth. Louisville's first four points in the quarter came at the line, keeping them in a game where their field goal shooting threatened to abandon them. Jayda Curry made the Cards' first basket of the fourth three minutes in with a three-pointer to make it 52-47.

After Duke collected back-to-back offensive rebounds on their next possession, Olivia Cochran committed her third foul and Delaney Thomas stepped to the line for free throws. She made them both, giving Duke their first free throw makes on their first free throw attempts of the game with just 6:30 remaining. The Blue Devil's second made three of the game would tie it at 52. Cochran earned her fourth foul and the game went to its final media timeout. A Curry foul sent Duke to the line to give the Blue Devils their first lead since the score was 18-16 in the second quarter, but Louisville was undeterred. Jeff Walz left Cochran in the game with four fouls and she delivered, scoring to tie the game, while drawing a foul on Reigan Richardson. Cochran would miss the and-one free throw, but Merissah Russell made her first huge offensive rebound play to lead to a Curry jumper to give the Cards the lead once more.

After that, the Cards continued to trade a pair of free throws for a Duke made two pointer. Remember how we talked about Duke being susceptible to fouling? Yeah, that remained true. After Curry's jumper made it 56-54 in favor of Louisville, the Cards would score just one more field goal for the remainder of the game. And in a close game like this, it wasn't because Duke was fouling aggressively to send Louisville to the line. Louisville just ran their offense, played their game, and happened to earn freebies. In fact, Duke was so committed to not fouling that when the Cards inherited the ball with 58 seconds remaining and a four-point lead, they were able to milk 42 seconds off the clock before Curry was sent to the line. I mentioned Russell's first huge O-board already, but her second came when Curry ran the shot clock all the way down before firing a three. Russell fought hard for the rebound, then wisely pulled it away, helping tick those extra 14 seconds away.

Curry made two to give the Cards a six-point lead, and a Duke turnover on a missed offensive rebound attempt appeared to seal the game. But wait! Is that Dee Kanter's music? Despite the ball pretty clearly going out off of Duke in real time, Kanter called it Duke ball. To her credit, she immediately went to the monitor. Once again, the ball was shown to clearly bounce off the Duke player's arm last, but a minute later, Kanter announced the call was confirmed. Ok, sure. As they say, though, "Ball don't lie." The Blue Devils threw the inbound pass away and Curry corralled it. She was fouled immediately, and she sunk two more to set the final: 70-62.

This was an extremely chaotic game. Both teams went on runs that looked like they'd ice the game early, and both also looked completely out of sorts at different times. Sometimes, they looked out of sorts at the same time, resulting in certified "ugly basketball" at multiple points in the game. Curry was the biggest bright spot in this one, with her season high also being the highest point total in the game. She added three assists and five steals to two offensive boards and she was 9-9 from the free throw line. Toss in her three "oh please no" injury scares and that's a full stat line.

The Cards also got strong performances from the other two players to match Curry's 37 minutes. Taj Roberts and Ja'Leah Williams were both in double figures. Williams had four rebounds, three assists, and two steals to go along with her 13 points, and Roberts had three rebounds and a steal while going 6-6 from the free throw line to score 11. Merissah Russell scored two points on her only shot attempt (a critical basket at the end of the shot clock) and matched the team high with four rebounds.

Let's have a FRED Report, shall we?

The FRED Report

F - Free Throws: This one is pretty straightforward. Louisville was 22-25 from the line, scoring more points from the free-throw line than the three-point line (which is saying something; they had six threes!). 88% is really good, and it's twice as nice when the opponent scores just four points from the stripe. Capital 'F'.

R - Rebounding: Rebounding was a strange one. Louisville had just 28 rebounds, but their boards were much more distributed than Duke's 30, as the Blue Devils had two players with seven apiece. Louisville made hay with their offensive rebounds, though. The two teams matched with 11 each, but the Cards outscored Duke 14-8 on second chance points. I'm going to go with a lowercase 'r'.

Marvel's Fred Duke
AKA 'Blob'

E - Effort/Execution: Boy, you thought rebounding was tough to judge? The Cards were beaten in points in the paint, largely due to defensive lapses, and bench points, but they scored more points off turnovers and on the fast break. They also had more second chance points, as I just noted, so clearly hustle was on the table. They only shot 43% from the floor but that came with 50% from three point range (Louisville really struggled with missed layups). The Cards had 19 turnovers, but that was fewer than Duke (albeit by one), and Duke is a really good defensive team. Because this was a game that Louisville had every chance to give up in the second half and instead they showed their mettle by hanging in for a tough road win, I'm granting a capital 'E'. Sue me.

D - Defense: So... Duke shot the ball pretty well. They ended up going 50% from the floor, with a whopping 60.5% from two-point land. However, they turned the ball over a ton and Louisville defended without sending the Blue Devils to the line. Duke was averaging 74 points coming into the game and Louisville held them way below that. The Cards defense had some mistakes, to be sure, but they kept themselves in the game early and closed it out late. Capital 'D'.

You may not love a final tally of F-r-E-D in a game that was as choppy as that one, but I'm not going to let a somewhat ugly game overshadow the fact that the Cards picked up their second Quad 1 win with a huge road win over a top-15 opponent. Louisville has an incredibly difficult road ahead to close out this season, so getting it started with a win like tonight is great for confidence. Up next is another matchup with a team tied with Louisville in the standings. The Cards bring #9 UNC to town on Sunday for the penultimate home game of the season. A win would go a long way toward cementing Louisville's double-bye and improving their NCAA seed line. Hopefully this team is peaking at the right time of year.

POST GAME JEFF WALZ HERE

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case