CRAWFORD | Curry's late scoring helps Louisville women hold off Stanford, 74-65 | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- With the University of Louisville women's basketball team, sometimes these game stories are a cut-and-paste. Get a big lead, lose it in the fourth quarter, hang on to win.

Saturday's noon ESPN matchup against Stanford used the same template. The Cards led by 18 heading into the fourth quarter, then saw their lead shrink to four with just under two minutes to play. Turnovers. Fouls. The usual culprits.

Louisville coach Jeff Walz put the ball into the hands of junior guard Jayda Curry in the closing minutes and she made eight of nine free throws in the final 1:41 to help Louisville land a 74-65 victory before a crowd of 8,281 in the KFC Yum! Center.

Curry scored 15 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter, and 13 of those in the final 3 ½ minutes after Stanford had gone on a 9-0 run to cut its deficit to seven points.

Tajianna Roberts — Tajianna looks to drive in the second half of Louisville's win over Stanford on Jan. 9, 2025 in the KFC Yum! Center.
ERIC CRAWFORD

"No pressure," Curry said. "I think my team, they're telling me to go get the ball, coach is telling me, and I'm confident in my free throw shooting. So, it's just another aspect of the game."

Maybe more easily forgotten is the bigger picture. Louisville has now won 11 of its past 13 games. It is 17-7 overall, 10-3 in the SEC. Its schedule ranks in the top 20 nationally. With a team featuring nine freshmen, that's an accomplishment.

And with a trio of guards like Curry, Tajianna Roberts and Ja'Leah Williams, Louisville could be a dangerous team down the stretch, if it could find some consistency, and a closing kick. Roberts got hot in the third quarter and led the Cardinals Saturday with 21 points. Williams added 13 points, four assists and five rebounds. Curry led all Louisville's rebounders with seven. Nyla Harris added eight points and six rebounds.

Walz knows all the issues his team has had. He also knows that it has looked very good for stretches of most of its games. He sees what the team could be. Now he wants to see it in a difficult schedule stretch. Louisville travels to No. 22 Florida State on Thursday, then gets a week off before traveling to No. 10 Duke. After that, Louisville gets No. 13 North Carolina at home, goes to Clemson, and finishes at No. 3 Notre Dame.

For a team that has gone 0-6 in Quad 1 games, opportunities abound.

"We have a stretch here of our next five that we're going to be tested," Walz said. "And we're going to find out, how can we respond? ... We're going to find out where we are. Does it mean we have to win every one of them? No, but I want to see what we do competing. I think we are a team that that's really got a chance."

Walz said he continues to harp on the fourth quarter issues. He said he'll work with his players showing video of their defensive mistakes. He needs more consistency from the free-throw line, and in not turning the ball over. Stanford repeatedly took the ball away in the post and scored 28 points off Louisville turnovers.

The Cards also need more production off the bench. One game — like Louisville's win over Cal on Thursday — they'll get it. The next game, they won't. Stanford outscored Louisville 18-11 off the bench and 42-22 in the paint.

"It's terrible," Walz said of the fourth quarter. "The problem is the consistency side of things. ... We start the fourth quarter and just turn the ball over like three straight times, and then we start fouling. It was just, it was terrible. Then we stopped guarding. You can't lose focus if you expect to be really, really good."