LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The University of Louisville women's basketball team is three-quarters of an awfully good team. The Cardinals have played right with some teams whose names will be prominent in March.


What they have lacked is a closing kick, the kind of 40-minute consistency necessary to beat the very best teams on their schedule. Jeff Walz has seen his young team getting closer, watched his large and talented freshman class improve.


Thursday night presented another prime-time opportunity to show progress. And this time, against No. 21-ranked Cal, the Cardinals closed the deal.


Louisville twice built 15-point leads against the Bears, who came into the game at 19-4, 7-3 in the ACC. But instead of allowing a Cal comeback, the Cardinals put together a 7-0 run midway through the second quarter, then hung on for a 70-63 victory in the KFC Yum! Center.
Louisville's Jayda Curry drives in the first half of a win over California in the KFC Yum! Center.
The win was Louisville's second this season against a ranked opponent, against six losses. But despite a few blowout losses, they've been close in others. They were up late at Kentucky, but missed free-throws and wound up losing in overtime. They were up by double-digits against Oklahoma, but could not hold the lead. 

Those are the kinds of wins that could've boosted this team's NCAA Tournament seeding. Thursday's is that kind of win, too. But it wasn't without some drama at the end.
Cal pulled back within single digits, at 66-58, with 1:07 to play. Louisville struggled against full-court pressure late, but a pair of free throws by Ja'Leah Williams with 1:02 left put the Cards up 10 and alleviated some of the pressure.
Then, after a stop, Louisville's Nyla Harris missed a pair of free throws, and Cal was still in the game. The Cards kept missing free throws. After an and-one by Cal's Kayla Williams made it 69-63 late, freshman Izela Arenas made one of two free throws to push the lead to seven — the final margin.
"I'm really pleased," Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. "I thought we competed. I thought we played hard. You know, we weren't great on defense, but we weren't as bad as we have been. And then it was almost a complete meltdown there the last two and a half minutes, just, I can't even explain it. So we're going to, you know, we'll watch film . . . and hopefully learn and improve."
”We still can finish out games better,” Olivia Cochran said. “Just not fouling — and bad turnovers. And I include myself in that.”
The Cardinals forced 23 turnovers and turned them into 22 points. They also had a 25-4 edge in bench scoring.
Louisville fell behind 7-0 to open the game, then took control. The Cards led by three at the end of the first period and by 10 at the half, after being up 15 with two minutes to play in the half.
Jeff Walz applauds his team during Louisville's win over California in the KFC Yum! Center.
Again in the third quarter, they built their lead back to 15, after seven straight points from Imari Berry. But the lead entering the fourth quarter was back down to 11.
Walz praised Berry, who was plus-11 in her 10 minutes of playing time and got several deflections and a steal.Â
"I was really happy for her," Walz said. "You know, the first half, she comes up with a bucket or two and then gets that foul to end the first half. It's what she does. She can score the basketball. And what we're trying to get her to do, and she's really doing a much better job, is defensively just staying in front of somebody, where earlier in the year I used to joke with her, she'd score 12 or 13, but she gave up 20. And now — we were plus 11 with her in the game. So I was really happy for her."

Louisville has had problems in the fourth quarter this season — it's the only one in which opponents have outscored them. But the quick burst of offense midway through the period, with scores by Cochran, Williams and Curry, gave them the boost they needed.
Cal kept getting to the line in the closing minutes, building a late 7-0 run on five free throws. But it wasn't enough.
The Cardinals were led by Cochran, who finished with 18 points and nine rebounds before fouling out in the final minute. Her scoring sent her over the 1,500-point mark — 13th on Louisville's all-time list — for her Louisville career. Berry, who played just 10 minutes, finished with 14 points. Williams finished with 11.
Next up, the Cards play host to Stanford on Sunday at noon.


The Cardinals forced 23 turnovers and turned them into 22 points.
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