By Elizabeth Scanland

Louisville beat the No. 13 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at home to get their first ranked win of the season.

The Cards remain undefeated against the Yellow Jackets all-time.

Rolling with the punches

Georgia Tech got on the board quickly with a three-pointer by Tonie Morgan, followed by a layup by Zoesha Smith.

Despite getting immediately punched in the face, Louisville was able to respond with a three of its own, which created a back-and-forth with both teams trading baskets, especially from underneath.

Then, with about three minutes left in the quarter, Louisville was able to go on a 9-0 scoring run in which Elif Istanbulluoglu and Ja’Leah Williams led the charge.

Louisville led 18-15 to end the first quarter.

Louisville was the first to get on the board in the second quarter by forcing a turnover which led to a three from Jayda Curry.

This continued Louisville’s 12-0 run that started in the first, lasting almost five-and-a-half minutes.

Despite some weak defense from the Cards allowing for easy baskets for Tech, Louisville dominated the second half with unselfish play. Louisville went on another 7-0 run that included a flagrant-1 foul called on Tianna Thompson of Tech.

The run lasted over four minutes and almost ended the half.

The Cards went into the locker room red-hot, leading 37-23.

No repeating mistakes

Scoring in the second half was pretty back and forth for the majority of the 20 minutes.

Louisville’s lead grew as large as 17 points in the third quarter, but never strayed too far from the 15-point lead they had going into the period.

Tajianna Roberts led the way with eight points scored during the third.

Tech went on a slight run at the end of the third to bring the lead to 59-49 going into the final quarter.

The fourth quarter was more of the same, except points were much harder to come by.

The two team scratched and clawed just for the lead to remain unchanged by the middle of the period.

The Yellow Jackets did make a big push in the final four minutes, holding Louisville scoreless for over three of those minutes. During this time, Tech was able to climb their way back into the game by getting downhill and attacking the paint.

Louisville only led by five points, reminding them of the multiple other games this season with big leads blown late.

Instead of submitting, the Cards hit the gas and held Tech scoreless for the final 89 seconds of the game. Louisville pushed their lead out to just insurmountable enough, and snuffed any life the Jackets had left.

Louisville won 69-60.

Much needed, much deserved

Despite giving up a big lead, Louisville dominated from start to finish and picked up a massive win toward their tournament resume.

A main area of success came from rebounding as the Cards out-rebounded Tech 31-24. Eleven of the boards were on the offensive end, giving the Cards key second chances. These second-chance points were crucial as the Cards were out-shot from behind the arc 41.7% to a pathetic 17.6%.

Perhaps the biggest factor was Louisville’s limiting of turnovers. The Cards only had 15 turnovers, which isn’t a small amount but it’s also not a huge amount like has become normal over the past two seasons.

Louisville also didn’t have a player on the floor who didn’t score. Roberts led the way with 16 points followed by Williams with 13 and Nyla Harris with 11. Williams also added seven rebounds and three assists, and did a fantastic job controlling the pace of the game.

This was a much needed win for the Cards and is exactly what the doctor ordered to give them confidence going forward.

Louisville advances to 12-5 overall and 5-1 in conference play.

The Cards will take on Syracuse at home on Thursday.

Photo Courtesy // Rachel Klotz, Louisville Athletics