LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) - You know by now that despite failing to close out No. 19 Syracuse on the road, No. 18 Louisville had a legitimate gripe about an end-of-game intentional foul call that was so bad it drove its head coach to willfully take a $20,000 fine for his criticism and chop wood in his yard to jokingly help pay it.
Thursday night saw a Cardinal effort that was more than enough to lose without a controversial call. But instead, UofL grinded out an ugly 69-67 win at Boston College despite a season-high 24 turnovers to move to 10-3 in ACC play. Nina Rickards drove for a go-ahead layup with 18 seconds left before Olivia Cochran intercepted an Eagle pass in the final five seconds to help seal the victory.
Nina for the lead! 🙌🙌💻 https://t.co/bbblJtLRRL#GoCards pic.twitter.com/CCzAQw4KoF
— Louisville Women’s Basketball (@LouisvilleWBB) February 16, 2024
"It's a win, we don't get style points," Louisville head coach Jeff Walz said. "You don't want to turn the ball over 24 times ever. It's pitiful. I mean, it was not a very good performance of taking care of the basketball.
"We've got to clean it up and we're a much better basketball team than what we showed tonight. But I got to give them some credit because we figured out a way to win. And that's the most important thing."
Cochran and Rickards were two of four Cardinals to score in double figures, joining Kiki Jefferson and Sydney Taylor. Rickards led her team with 16 points, showing a relentless effort to attack the lane and keep Louisville in the game early.
"She absolutely saved us," Walz said. "If she hadn't been on the bus here today coming to the ballgame, it would have obviously been a different story. She was our offense in the first half, in the first quarter especially."
Turnovers plagued the visitors all night against a team that entered the game leading the ACC in steals. The Cards dug themselves a 17-8 hole after a quarter thanks to nine giveaways in that opening frame, where Rickards scored six of the team's eight points.
"She executed and came off some ball screens, changed tempo, changed pace, got the switch she wanted, then accelerated in and finished around the basket," Walz said. "She just took advantage of what was given and was really, really good at it."
UofL overcame a deficit of 10 to make its run in the second quarter, outscoring the Eagles 24-15. The Cardinals could not grab the lead though until a Cochran free throw gave it to them at the 2:40 mark of the third quarter.
"We had a bad shootaround and it carried over," Walz said. "I told them in the locker room at halftime and at the end of the game, 'We're a really good basketball team, but we're not good enough to just show up and say we're going to beat somebody.'"
Defense and the offensive glass were the antidotes to the turnover sickness. Louisville finished the game with 13 offensive rebounds and 14 second-chance points. Those 13 boards are second in ACC play only to the 15 the Cards tallied in their last win over Boston College on Jan. 25. UofL scored 17 points off 18 Eagle turnovers while Boston College scored just 16 points off 24 Cardinal mistakes.
"We did a have a couple of really nice opportunities on outlet passes and we really attacked them quick instead of trying to set things up and run an offense or anything like that," Walz said. "We just went right at the basket. And we executed a few times. We did some really nice things offensively on a few set plays, but the way they play, it's hard to run a whole bunch of offense because of they're extended and wide. You just kind of play basketball.
"And that's something that we've been working really hard on is when somebody plays a regular man-to-man, you can run A goes to B goes to C, run a couple sets and a couple options out of it, that's great. But when they're just flying around, extended up high and they give you a huge gap in the middle, you've got to be able to attack it. And then you got to be able to make shots. We just did not shoot the ball really well tonight and had some really good looks."
One of the biggest games of the season awaits the Cardinals when they return home. Louisville hosts No. 12 Virginia Tech on Sunday at 2 p.m. The Cardinals, Hokies, Orange and No. 6 NC State are all in a tight race to try to claim first place in the ACC.
"It's a huge game for us," Walz said. "If we want to take that next step to try and get back up there in the league standings, it's a game we got to come out and be ready to play."
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