LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The University of Louisville women's basketball team keeps creeping forward. Game by game, Jeff Walz's young team has improved. And on Thursday night, it knocked off No. 11-ranked Duke 70-62 in Cameron Indoor Stadium to hand the Blue Devils their first home-court loss of the season.
Jayda Curry scored a season-high 24 points and added five steals as part of a Louisville defensive effort that forced 20 Duke turnovers and netted the Cardinals a 27-17 edge in points off turnovers. Curry also went 9-9 from the free-throw line and is on a school-record pace from the line at 93.4% on the season.
It was Louisville's fourth straight win and 12th in its past 14 games. The win was Louisville's 19th of the season, against seven losses, and boosted the Cards to 12-3 in the ACC, with three conference games left to play.
Since losing at home to No. 2 Notre Dame, the Cardinals have beaten three ranked teams in their past four games, including No. 23 Cal, No. 23 Florida State and now Duke. They'll return home Sunday to face No. 9 North Carolina at 2 p.m. They now find themselves with a chance to return to the national rankings, and more importantly, to earn a double-bye in the ACC Tournament.
"There's a lot of games in front of us," Walz said. "And the exciting thing for us is we're competing for a top four seed, and we've got two or three at home, so there's a lot of basketball left. When we were 6-5, I'm not sure anybody thought we'd be competing for a top four seed in this ACC tournament."
Yet here Louisville is, in the same old spot.
Louisville opened the fourth quarter with a 7-2 run, then was aggressive getting to the basket — and to the free-throw line — down the stretch. The Cards scored 12 of their final 14 points from the free-throw line. Curry went 9-9 from the charity stripe and Tajianna Roberts hit four in the fourth quarter.
Roberts, a five-time ACC rookie of the week, finished with 11 points and Ja'Leah Williams added 13. Walz also praised Merissah Russell, who came into the game in the fourth quarter and got four big rebounds — tying for the team high.
He said Louisville's experience in close games — not all of it winning experience — helped carry his team.
"We've taken a bunch of punches to the mouth, even in games when we've been up 16 or 18, and then we'll let someone go on a 10-0 run, and now all of a sudden it's a six-point game," Walz said. "We played in a bunch of these games. This was just a game where we were never up 18, so I felt good about our about us being able to execute, because we've been there before. A lot of it was self-inflicted. But today it was a game of two really good teams."
Louisville made 22 of 25 free-throws in the game. Duke shot 50 percent from the field but got to the free-throw line only four times and hurt itself with turnovers. Of its 20, 12 came on Louisville steals.
Curry continues to play with growing confidence. She is averaging 20 points over her past three games while shooting 41.2 percent from three-point range.
Roberts is averaging 16.3 points per game over the past three, and Williams is at 10 per game. That three-guard attack is beginning to exert itself offensively, as the team gets its footing on defense.
"We're playing some really good basketball at the right time," Walz said. "You know, everyone kind of crossed us off the list when we were 6-5, but it's the people that don't know much about our game. I mean, what are we now, 19-7 and six of our losses are gainst teams that, I think, are ranked No. 18 or higher? It's not like we played a bad schedule. And you know, when you've got eight freshmen, and our freshmen are playing a lot and we're counting on them, they've gotten better and better, and it's fun to watch them."
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