LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – It’s a strange situation, but sometimes a coach has to settle is team down in front of its own home crowd. With a team full of transfers, most of whom hadn’t experienced an environment quite like the one in the KFC Yum! Center on Sunday, with 11,291 fans in attendance to watch No. 22 Louisville face rival Kentucky.

“We wouldn't come out with the focus that I thought we needed to,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. “And part of it could be because it's the first time some of them played in an environment like this. You know, you will walk out there and I know everybody thinks it's easy. But if you you ever get in a situation where you have to go speak in front of a crowd or something and think, ‘Man, I wonder how that kid feels going to shoot a free throw in front of 12,000?’ So I think it took a little bit of time for them to get adjusted.”

But the Cardinals did reach a comfort zone midway through the third quarter, trailing by three to a Kentucky team rejuvenated by the return of former state Miss Basketball Maddie Scherr. Louisville used a 14-2 run late in the third quarter to take control, and cruised to a 73-61 victory, their seventh straight in the series.

Louisville got a major lift off the bench from LeLe Love, who opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer and sealed the win with a steal and layup late to score 11 of her team-best 14 points in the final 10:22.

A newcomer to the rivalry, the Georgia Tech transfer was clearly into it emotionally, reacting demonstrably after her three, and the steal and score, as well as a couple other occasions.

“That crowd and all of that just lets me be love,” Love said. “I just like to have a lot of energy, yelling and screaming. I feed off that, and my teammates feed off it.”

It was a crowd that, for most of the game, was just waiting for something big to happen.

Kentucky came in with the plan of slowing the pace offensively and slowing Louisville down with a 2-3 zone. And for more than three-quarters of the game, Kentucky followed that plan more effectively than they have all season. The Wildcats trailed by only one at the half and led by three midway through the third quarter.

For a team that has lost six of its past eight games, Kentucky showed great poise and executed well. It had limited its turnovers and shot a good percentage from three in the first half. But in the third quarter, Louisville managed to speed the Wildcats up, and UK coach Kyra Elzy said that changed the game.

“We started turning the ball over, which ignited their transition offense,” she said. “We didn't rotate out on a couple of shooters. And I thought we started failing on their offensive rebounds. It was a small stretch, but it really changed the momentum of that game. So, that's what we'll go back as coaches and watch. We’re not that far away, but for that small window of time. But against that caliber of team, we can't have that lapse, and it cost us.”

Louisville found a comfort zone against Kentucky’s zone as the second half wore on. They shot into gaps for offensive rebounds, and outrebounded Kentucky 45-23 in the game, including 15-2 on the offensive glass for an 11-0 edge in second-chance points. Louisville also outscored Kentucky 23-11 off turnovers.

Scherr finished with 22 points for Kentucky, while Ajae Petty added yet another double-double, 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Louisville again had a balanced offensive attack with five players in double-figures. Sydney Taylor and Nyla Harris had 13 points each, Kiki Jefferson had 11 and Olivia Cochran 10, including the 1,000th point of her career, which now includes a career sweep of Kentucky. Jayda Curry and Nina Rickards combined for eight assists and two turnovers.

Harris and Cochran also had eight rebounds each.

“We just had to pick up the pace of the game,” Harris said. “We needed to be more aggressive. . . . This is my second year in this whole rivalry game. But last year as a freshman I was definitely like, ‘OK, I didn't really know what it meant.’ But after the game last year, I really did understand what it meant and what it means to this community. And so today, even at shootaround, I made sure to emphasize it, because me and (Olivia and Merissah Russell) have played in this game before. So, we had to emphasize a lot to our transfers and our new players that this is an important game and it doesn't matter what record we have, it’s like a top 10 matchup to this whole community. We have to put an emphasis on scouting or whatever we do, because this not only is a big game to us, but it's a big game to our community.”

Now, Louisville (9-1) has another big game in a week. It will visit No. 19 UConn next Sunday, after a home game against Morehead State Wednesday at 4. Kentucky returns home to face Furman on Sunday.

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