CRAWFORD | Proof of Concept: Louisville beats UNC, keeps making its case for improvement | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The Research Triangle of Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill is where ideas get tested. Hypotheses get poked. Findings get published.

The No. 22 Louisville women’s basketball team went in Sunday as a theory. It left as a result.

Against No. 12 North Carolina, the Cardinals spent 45 minutes producing data — on persistence, growth and resolve — and filed a 76-66 overtime victory that may not end the debate, but certainly advances the study.

This wasn’t a perfect experiment. Louisville led virtually the entire way but lost the lead late when it allowed a flurry of Tar Heel threes. It needed an Imari Berry free throw with 0.4 seconds left just to force overtime.

Louisville | Kentucky | Indiana | Eric Crawford

But in the extra period, the conclusion was clear.

Louisville shut North Carolina out in those five minutes. Zero points. Seven missed shots. Two turnovers. The building went cold. The Cardinals turned up the heat.

That tends to happen when a team is learning how to win.

“We led for 39 minutes,” coach Jeff Walz said afterward. “We kind of had a bad two and a half minutes there at the end of regulation … but we fought. We didn’t quit.”

Louisville sophomore Imari Berry made some key plays late in Louisville's win at No. 12 North Carolina.
ERIC CRAWFORD

They haven’t, either.

Not after three early losses to Top‑10 teams. Not after blowing a seven‑point fourth‑quarter lead Sunday. And not after Tar Heels guard Taliyah Henderson rang the bell again and again, wiping away what looked like a comfortable Louisville advantage. Louisville didn’t play bad defense. She made tough shots. Walz tipped his cap.

But his team gathered itself, got a couple of steals, and went back to work.

That’s the throughline with this team. It hasn’t arrived yet. But it’s assembling itself. Piece by piece. Possession by possession. The kind of slow-burn development coaches tend to recognize long before fans do.

Louisville showed flashes when it fought back after trailing big against UConn. It nearly toppled South Carolina. Sunday, it finished the thought.

North Carolina tied the game late and had a chance to win it in regulation. With her team up one, Indya Nivar missed two free throws. Laura Ziegler secured the rebound and found Berry streaking up the floor. Berry drove, absorbed contact and earned two free throws with four‑tenths of a second remaining.

The first bounced out.

The second dropped. If you think that's an easy one to make, try it sometime in that situation.

“I mean, the first one did not look real pretty,” Walz said, “but the second one looked great. And it just was kind of like, all right, we screwed up there at the end of regulation, but were able to force overtime. And we played really, really well in that overtime.”

That may have undersold it.

Berry added two more points in OT. Skylar Jones hit a runner in the lane. The rest came at the free‑throw line, where Louisville went 6-for-6. North Carolina, meanwhile, went silent. Carmichael Arena became a control group.

Sunday’s box score reads like a mural of progress.

Elif Instanbulluoglu — Louisville forward Elif Istanbulluoglu led the Cardinals with 16 points in a win over No. 12 North Carolina.
ERIC CRAWFORD

Four players scored in double figures. Eight players scored overall. Louisville finished with 11 steals and 44 rebounds. The Tar Heels shot 37.5 percent and went to the line just 12 times.

Ziegler was the fulcrum. She scored 13 points in the first quarter alone and finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and zero turnovers in 42 minutes. She scored when needed. Drew attention when she didn’t. Passed. Defended. Stabilized.

“What I appreciate about Laura is she didn't force any shots,” Walz said. “She played 42 minutes for us, had two assists, zero turnovers, and played a great basketball game. And that's where I'm trying to get them all to understand, especially in the day of social media, is half the people know offense, but half the people that post stuff don't have any idea of really what's going on inside a basketball game. They look at a stat sheet and go, ah, she had a bad game, and don’t realize what she actually did.”

Then there’s Elif Istanbulluoglu, the Turkish junior whose game once came with a footnote.

Sixteen points. Two big threes. Confident ones.

“She made a couple big‑time shots,” Walz said. “She's been getting in the gym, working on her three, and it's starting to show. … I joked with her all last year that her middle name was ‘but.’ I’d tell her she needed to get in the gym and she’d say, ‘But I’ve been doing this.’ I told her as soon as she stopped saying ‘but’ her game was going to improve. And she made that effort. She said, ‘I’m not going to say ‘but’ anymore.’ And she hasn’t.”

Berry had 13 points. Tajianna Roberts added 11. Roles are forming. Confidence is compounding. Anaya Hardy is becoming a presence inside. Jones is figuring out her spots. If and when 6-5 freshman Grace Mbuga gets healthy, she could make a difference. Mackenly Randolph is contributing.

Walzi is playing with lineups. He moved Reyna Scott off the ball a bit, put it more into the hands of Ziegler. He, too, is collecting data all the time.

Before Sunday, Louisville had won just three of its past 10 games against the Research Triangle trio of Duke, North Carolina and NC State. That’s not irrelevance, but it is a reminder that tradition doesn’t cash itself.

Louisville has, in the past, just expected to win games like this. But in the age of the transfer portal and year‑to‑year rosters, the muscle memory of those expectations live more in the coaching office (and fanbase) than the locker room.

Still, you could see it Sunday, the outline of belief.

I asked Walz whether the near‑upset of South Carolina earlier this season could shift how his team sees itself.

“I hope it does,” he said. “I hope it shows them that we can compete with anybody.”

Sunday didn’t prove everything. But it proved enough to keep the experiment going.

In the Research Triangle – and elsewhere -- that’s how progress is made.