Louisville Cardinals started the game off slow in the first quarter, as Jeff Walz and his team went down 20-6 in the first quarter.
The Louisville Cardinals and Notre Dame Fighting Irish are going at it at the KFC Yum! Center for the annual Pink Game, and it is being broadcasted nationally on ESPN2.
Cardinals and Fighting Irish have been at the center of attention and constantly at the top of the ACC. In the last 11 years Louisville or Notre Dame has been in the ACC Championship nine times, including 2018 when Louisville defeated Notre Dame 74-72, earning their last ACC title.
Both schools have been exceptionally well this season, but Notre Dame has been nearly unbeatable all-season long, as they are 18-2 and on a 13 game win streak and they semed like they were on pace to blow the Cardinals out until Tajianna Roberts had something to say.
Louisville Basketball's Tajianna Roberts catches fire
Tajianna Roberts caught fire in the second quarter and hit 3/3 from beyond the arc and had had a total of 11 points in the second quarter. In the first half she went 4/5 and leads UofL with 14 points and fueled this Cardinals offense.
It is clear that this Walz offense has to be ran through her, and get her open shots in the second half. Roberts is averaging around 13 points a game on 42% from the field, and hit 33/77 Cardinals three-pointers entering the game.
Cardinals were down 25-13 in the second quarter before Roberts sparked the energy for UofL. She went on an 8-0 run herself in less than a minute, and took her just 56 seconds to bring this UofL squad back into the game and make it 25-21.
Louisville would take their first lead of the game from a Robert's three-pointer with five minutes left in the half. Cardinals went on a 16-3 run and 11 of those points came from Roberts. Louisville finished the half on a 25-14 run and entered the half down one after Hannah Hidalgo hit a jumper to take the lead back for the Irish with 20 seconds remaining.
If UofL wants to pull off this historic upset, Cardinals must stop Hidalgo as she has been lethal in this first half. Hidalgo leads all scorers with 18 points, shooting 5/10 from the field, 1/2 from deep, and a perfect 7/7 from the charity stripe.
Roberts made multiple clutch shots in this game so far against No. 3 Notre Dame. Louisville must find creative ways to get Robert involved if they want to pull off this upset, and making sure that she gets early touches in the second half will do just that.
Feeding Roberts the ball at the beginning of games will now force the Irish defense to close out harder on her, which allows her to pick apart the defense with her playmaking and find an open teammate.
Notre Dame Fighting Irish will start looking for Roberts if the touches continue to go to her, but this was undoubtedly the most clutch stretch of her Cardinals career.