LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Louisville didn’t just beat Georgia Tech. They performed their favorite road trick: turning a gym full of screaming fans into a library.
Jeff Walz’s Cardinals are better than good. They’re portable. On the road this season, Louisville has been less a visiting team than an evacuation order. Nine games, nine wins, crowds dismissed one by one like students after detention.
This wasn’t drama. It was routine maintenance. But honestly, nothing about winning on the road is routine. As much as Louisville women’s basketball has accomplished under Walz, no team had gone perfect in true road venues. Until this one.
They checked out of Atlanta with a 69-50 win, a 25-5 record, 15-2 in the ACC, and a head of steam heading into Sunday’s season finale at home against Notre Dame.
Georgia Tech tried to make some noise early: a few threes, a little buzz, the hopeful chatter of a crowd that thought tonight might be the night. Historically, the Yellowjackets have caused the Cardinals some problems.
But on Thursday, Louisville responded by helping itself to 27 points off 21 Georgia Tech turnovers and converting 14 of 18 layups. Elif Istanbulluoglu got the Cards going, with 11 first-quarter points, including a pair of three pointers.
Missed interior baskets cost the Cardinals in home losses to Duke and Virginia. Against Tech, the high percentage buried the home team despite 6-of-24 shooting from three-point range by the visitors.
Louisville didn’t run away so much as tighten the screws. By halftime it was 36–24, not a huge lead, but it felt bigger in context of the game, because Georgia Tech wasn’t getting clean air or clean looks.
“Our competitiveness, our focus … to hold them to 50 points … I thought we did a nice job defensively,” Walz said. “We’ve talked about in the half court, we have to do a better job of pressuring the ball … get a deflection that can turn into a steal. I thought we did that very, very well tonight.”
It was more of the same out of halftime. Louisville scored 18 points for a third straight quarter, putting up consistent fractions, we’d say at the racetrack. Six different players scored in the first 4 ½ minutes. That’s 2026 Louisville women’s basketball at its most dangerously diverse.
Istanbulluoglu, continuing to improve even in the season’s home stretch, finished with 18 to lead the Cards for a second straight game. Imari Berry had 13. Tajianna Roberts, who went down with an ankle injury in Sunday’s loss to Virginia, was a game-time decision and wound up starting, shooting 4-for-11 to finish with 12 points in 13 minutes. Reyna Scott finished with 10 points and a team-best four assists.
Next up for the Cards, their last game of the regular season, a 4 p.m. Sunday meeting with Notre Dame on ESPN2. Louisville beat the Fighting Irish 79-66 in South Bend on Jan. 15.
“I think they're scoring the ball better than they were earlier in the year,” Walz said. “But what we've got to be able to do is make sure we execute at the offensive end. You have to pass fake. You've got to make sure you don't let Hannah Hildago take things over at the defensive end, and come up with eight, nine steals, and the next thing you know, she's scoring layups because you're not doing a good job of keeping her off balance. … We know it will be a tough game.”
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