Louisville bounces back with win over Georgia Tech, 63-55
After the Duke Blue Devils snapped the Cardinals six-game winning streak on January 1, 2023, Louisville bounced back with an eight point victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith led all scorers in convincing fashion with 24 points. The next closest player was Georgia Tech’s Kara Dunn with 17 points.
Head Coach Jeff Walz uses Hailey Van Lith much like Men’s Head Basketball Coach Kenny Payne uses senior guard El Ellis. In sixteen games this season, the 5-foot-7 Van Lith has played a total of 582 minutes for an average of 36.4 minutes per game. A full-length women’s basketball game is 40 minutes long, so she nearly plays the whole game every game.
The only game she did not play in was the 100-37 thrashing of Longwood University on November 25, 2022, due to an undisclosed injury. For comparison’s sake, men’s basketball star El Ellis has played a total of 529 minutes in fifteen total games this season, which comes out to an average of 35.3 minutes per game. Similar to the women’s games, the men’s games also total out at 40 minutes a piece. So, it’s safe to say these two Louisville coaches are using their stars to the max.
And for yesterday’s matchup against the Yellow Jackets, it was the same story for Coach Walz and his star player. Van Lith finished the night with the most recorded minutes out of any player with a total of 38. She is a workhorse for the Cardinals and for good reason.
The southpaw guard has the ability to take over games and prove she is worth the playing time she is getting. Last night, she was perfect from the free throw line (4-4) but struggled from behind the arc, going 0-for-2. She was able to make an impact defensively with one block even at her size of 5-foot-7.
Morgan Jones, a 6-foot-2 graduate transfer, also finished the night with one block meaning Hailey Van Lith, statistically, had the same impact as her on the defensive side of the ball. But, Jones is more than capable of taking over games on that side of the ball, which Head Coach Walz recently addressed in an interview.
Jeff Walz on the consistency of Morgan Jones: "I'm trying to get more out of her. Some of the things that she can do on the defensive end of the floor, we aren't seeing yet... I've got so much confidence in her that if she wants to take over a game at the defensive end, she can." pic.twitter.com/R3HMwGMIeW
— Tyler Greever (@Tyler_Greever) January 4, 2023
Louisville continues in-conference play this Sunday against the Pittsburgh Panthers at 2:00 PM EST at the KFC Yum! Center.
Next. Louisville and Kenny Payne have turned a corner. dark