Not that getting to 18-0 was easy.

Asia Durr scored 19 of her 21 points in the first half (Cindy Rice Shelton photo).

Now comes the hard part of the schedule for the University of Louisville women’s basketball team, fresh from a 67-56 win over Virginia Tech before a crowd of 7,523 at the KFC Yum! Center. Next up for the Cardinals is Notre Dame.

UofL has lost the last 11 meetings with the Irish, the No. 2 team in most recent Associated Press poll. Notre Dame owns a 15-1 record, the only loss coming to top ranked Connecticut by a margin of nine points.

Getting past Notre Dame will require a rare 40-minute effort. After Sunday’s win, Coach Jeff Walz was again bemoaning the loss of intensity in a second half.  The Cardinals were outscored by the Hokies in the third (14-8)  and fourth quarters (17-11) after owning a 23-point lead in the first half.

He noted some improvement over previous games in which UofL let opponents back in games after overcoming huge deficits. But he warned that the Cardinals are in for some serious testing. An obvious weakness against Virginia Tech was not finding shooters down the stretch.

Asia Durr, for example, was open often during the second half but took only five shots. She had scored all but two of her game-leading 21 points in the first half. Myisha Hines-Allen scored six of her eight points in the first half as well.

Meanwhile, Sydney Zambrotta, third of the team with 13 three-point completions this season, has gone into a slump. She hasn’t made a 3-pointer in the past five games, missing all 11 of her shots beyond the three-point line.

Enjoy being undefeated.

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By Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer is a former Louisville editor and sportswriter, a public affairs consultant, a UofL grad and longtime fan.