The University of Louisville women’s basketball team’s regular season is coming down to the wire with only one game remaining. A top-four seeding in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament at risk in their game on Thursday before 8,211 at the KFC Yum! Center.
The Cardinals badly needing a win, showing high levels of intensity, holding off a good Miami team 71-57. Make that a hungry Miami team, in desperate need of a win, but denied an opportunity to challenge UofL for that final spot among the top four in the tournament.
Not going to be a good night for the opposition when Hailey Van Lith hits her first two 3-point attempts en route to 25 points for the game. Nor when Liz Dixon is going to have her second straight double-double game with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
The UofL attack punctuated by an offensive minded Mykasa Robinson with one her best outputs ever in a UofL uniform with a career-high 12 points. Mykasa would also pull down nine rebounds and be credited with seven assists, a block and a steal. Rounding out her game as she enters the stretch drive in her fifth season.
Following the media timeout in the third quarter, Louisville went on a 7-0 run to take its largest lead of the night, 54-40, and forced Miami to call a timeout. The Cardinals made six of their last eight shots to close out the quarter. Louisville was 9-for-15 from the field in the third as it held a 59-47 lead heading into the fourth.
Miami attempted to get back in the game in the fourth quarter, taking the deficit to 10 points a few times in the quarter. The Cardinals always had an answer for the Hurricanes when they got it within 10 points and never let the lead get into single digits. Louisville held the Hurricanes to just four points over the final six-plus minutes of the game. The Cards won their sixth game in their last seven and held an opponent to 60 points or less for the fourth time in the last six games.
Senior day on Sunday for Robinson, Dixon, Morgan Jones, Chrislyn Carr and Josie Williams in a second showdown again Notre Dame within a week. Louisville has to beat the Irish to nail down that fourth seed in the ACC tournament, which begins Wednesday at Greensboro, NC.
