Louisville women’s basketball revenge tour comes up short in ACC Tournament

Despite three members of the ACC All-Tournament First Team being Louisville Cardinals, the UofL women’s basketball team fell short in the ACC Tournament after a heartbreaking loss to the Virginia Tech Hokies in the ACC Championship game.

Head Coach Jeff Walz has had an unusual season in regards to not consistently having a low number next to the Louisville name this season, but the start to the ACC Tournament the Cardinals had silenced all of the doubt. After finishing the regular season with another loss to Notre Dame, Louisville bounced back with an absolute destruction of Wake Forest in their first matchup of the ACC Tournament.

Louisville 74, Wake Forest 48

After two straight wins for the Demon Deacons, their championship hopes were cut short at the hands of the Louisville Cardinals. Hailey Van Lith led the way with 26 points and Chrislyn Carr followed closely behind with 16 points.

Wake Forest’s Elise Williams added 16 points of her own, which was good enough for a third of her team’s total points. Her 60% field goal percentage was impressive, but the team only had a 35.4% from the field. A rough shooting night for the Demon Deacons left the door wide open for the Cardinals to run away with it.

Louisville shot 43.3% from the field and 42.1% from behind the arc with a 5-for-6 outing in the first quarter. Also, the Cardinals jumped out to a 20-8 lead in the opening minutes and never looked back the rest of the game. This was the first stop on their revenge tour as they answered for the loss to the Demon Deacons on January 26th in which Wake Forest won 68-57.

Louisville 64, Notre Dame 38

The next stop on their revenge tour was against #1 Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish got the best of the Cardinals both on February 16th and February 26th. Both losses came by a total of four points with the first matchup coming on a last second buzzer beater in overtime by Olivia Miles. No doubt the Cardinals did not forget that shot or the social media chatter that came after the losses.

They came out with a vengeance winning by a total of 26 points. The Fighting Irish were without two of their star players, in Olivia Miles and Dara Mabrey. Mabrey led Notre Dame with 33 three-pointers this season and Miles was the one who hit the buzzer-beater against Louisville the first time.

But, the remainder of their roster could not keep up with the Cardinals. Four members of the squad ended the game in double-digits. Hailey Van Lith had 15, Olivia Cochran had 12, Mykasa Robinson had 10, and Chrislyn Carr had 10.

Leading scorer Hailey Van Lith struggled from the field with a 28.6 field goal percentage, but she was a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw strike, so that helped make up for it. Despite only one three-pointer the entire game, the Cardinals maintained a steady lead over the Irish.

This could have been largely due to the Irish being without two of their leading scorers. However, the Cardinals did not let them get comfortable and bullied them the whole game.

ACC Championship: Virginia Tech 75, Louisville 67

The ACC Championship matchup between Louisville and Virginia Tech is a rematch from their January 12th matchup in which the Hokies edged out the Cardinals 81-79. This time Virginia Tech came out with another win and crushed the Cardinals championship hopes.

A lot of issue was taken with the way this game was officiated, which in turn reignited the theory that the Atlantic Coast Conference’s mission is to stifle the University of Louisville in every way possible. An eight-point win for the Hokies could have quickly been turned the other way had the whistles been more even.

A ten foul swing is significant, and that led to the Hokies’ 27 free throw attempts. The Cardinals finished with only 12 free throw attempts. Chrislyn Carr led the way for Louisville going a perfect 4-for-4 from the line and finished with 27 points in 35 minutes. Hailey Van Lith added 12 of her own, but only managed to go 4-for-17 from the field.

Virginia Tech received two 20-point efforts from Georgia Amoore, with 25, and Elizabeth Kitley, with 20. Amoore also broke a record as she led her team to the win. She officially has the most three-pointers in ACC tournament history.

Now, the UofL women’s basketball team awaits their fate on Sunday March 12th, which is the NCAA Women’s Tournament Selection Sunday. It is currently scheduled for 8:00 PM EST.