“My fault.”
Jeff Walz said those are the two favorite words in the collective vocabulary of the University of Louisville women’s basketball team after losing a 72-70 decision in overtime to North Carolina State Thursday.
Closely behind would have to be”My bad,” with players willing to take the blame when things go badly. “We just had too many breakdowns,” he said. “Pretty soon our kids are going to have to realize that every possession matters. It’s not just one, it’s a variety of players.
“We’ve got to get past ‘my fault’ and ‘my bad’ and getting it done,” he continued. “A lot of getting lost on defense, breaking down at crunch time.”
Never mind that UofL’s Myisha Hines-Allen was missing in action with an undisclosed knee injury, Walz expected the remaining players to fill the void left by last season’s player of the year in the ACC.
NC State, which failed to make the NCAA tournament last year after a late season loss to UofL, was eager to avenge that loss. “That loss may have kept them out of the tournament,” said Walz. “They came in hungry.
The Wolfpack was not going to go away even after UofL raced to 24-10 lead in the first quarter,. They had cut it to three points at the half and led by seven points after the third quarter. A couple of free throws by Asia Durr enabled the Cardinals to even the score at 61-61 to go into overtime.
UofL would miss three shots on one offensive series during the opening minute of overtime, two of them seemingly wide open. “We had some great looks in overtime but couldn’t convert,” he said. “It’s another heartbreaker for us, another loss to a top 15 team.”
The fatal blow was a last second jump shot by NC State’s Miah Spencer.
No complaints from the coach about turnovers, UofL had only eight of them. There’s no category for wide open shots on the stat sheets but Louisville made only 22 of 68 field goal attempts.
Walz said he doesn’t know whether Hines-Allen will be available to participate in Monday night’s game at Notre Dame. UofL is now 20-5 overall and 7-3 in conference play.