LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – It was, let's not sugar coat it, a meltdown. The No. 3-ranked Louisville women's basketball team led No. 4 N.C. State by 16 points with 4:25 to play in the third quarter Thursday night, and by 12 with just over 8 minutes to play, then scored only two points over the next 7 1/2 minutes.
Even more uncharacteristic, the Cardinals, who were the nation's No. 1 ranked team in the nation in defensive efficiency coming into the game, gave up 31 points in the final quarter.
The result was one of the biggest comebacks in the nation this season in women's college basketball, and certainly the biggest on the biggest stage – an ESPN prime-time matchup in front of a full house at N.C. State. The Wolfpack surged away for a 68-59 victory, and Louisville coach Jeff Walz, who had used every timeout his team had to try to steady his players during the N.C. State flurry, wondered what he'd encounter in the locker room.
He found disappointment, yes, but also resolve.
"They're hurt. I'm hurt. I mean, nobody likes to lose, I can guarantee you that," Walz said. "But the one thing I was excited about and pleased with is their attitudes in that locker room after the game. We have a group that wants to get better that's going to come out here tomorrow at practice. We're going to watch this fourth quarter, and pull some things that we did really well the first three quarters to show them that as well, and work toward the best. We just lost a little bit of composure there in the fourth quarter. And that's kind of what got them going, and we're better than that. And we know that. So, it was a tough fourth quarter for us but we're not going allow this to turn into a three or four game losing streak or anything like that."
Walz took the blame for a move that he said may have played a part in N.C. State getting itself on track offensively. The Wolfpack are legit. They came into the game with one of the ACC's top post players and four players who shoot better than 40 percent from 3-point range. They are a difficult team to stop. Yet for three quarters, Louisville confused them and had them searching for answers.
"I'll take the blame there," Walz said. "With about seven minutes to go, called timeout, and then we came out with a 1-3-1 zone, which we had run a few times and turned them over and had some success there when we were up 12. And we gave Diamond Johnson a wide-open shot on the right wing, which wasn't terrible, but it was the shot that kind of gave her the juice to get going. And she was the best player on the floor that fourth quarter, there's no question about it. And they came out and pressed, which we knew was going to come in that fourth quarter, and we just didn't handle it. . . . We turned it over a couple of times in a row, and that let them get into a rhythm and get some momentum."
Walz had said going into the game that whatever happened, he didn't want it to affect what the team did moving forward. The Cardinals play host to Wake Forest on Sunday and will face difficult tests from ranked opponents in the two weeks after that.
He's hoping his players will learn some lessons from that fourth-quarter failure.
But he also saw something from his team during the first three quarters, when its offensive execution was good, player movement, ball movement.
Everybody knew Emily Engstler was one of the top players in the ACC. But this game was a showcase for Olivia Cochran, who played her best college game with 19 points and 7 rebounds.
Obscured by the success the first three quarters was that Louisville built the lead it had without great shooting nights from Hailey Van Lith (who finished 6-17) and Emily Engstler (who finished 6-18).
Walz, disappointed as he was, saw a team with yet more upside.
"Everybody wants to do so well. Everybody wants to contribute and help and we just got sped up and out of what we were doing so well for those first three quarters and actually the first two minutes of the fourth," Walz said. "But it was a really, really good basketball game between two really good teams. You've got to credit (N.C. State). But I'm not going to concede and say we aren't right there with them. We are a top-five team for a reason. Do we still have room to grow? Absolutely. And will we? Yes. I'm really excited about what this team can be in about a month and a half as we continue to work in practice. We have some great ballgames in front of us. . . . It's going to be an interesting two weeks for us, but we're really excited for the challenge."
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