By Derek DeBurger
Louisville avoids another fourth quarter collapse as they hold on to beat the Stanford Cardinal
Singular or plural?
The Cards got off to a nice start, hitting two of their first five shots and throwing relentless pressure at Stanford defensively.
After the nice start and a solid lead of 9-4, Louisville then gave up an 11-2 run to fall behind by four points.
Elif Istanbulluoglu hit a layup before time expired, and the Cards went into the second quarter down 13-15.
It took two-and-a-half minutes, but Jayda Curry finally opened the scoring in the second with a game-tying jumper.
The two would jostle back and forth until Nyla Harris would take control of the scoring efforts with three made shots on four possessions.
Stanford would cut the lead down to two points, but the Cards would find Tajianna Roberts for a three-pointer and Ja’Leah Williams for a layup.
After holding the Cardinal to just eight points in the quarter, Louisville held a 30-23 lead going into halftime.
Intense
If Louisville was aggressive in the first half, they were destructive in the second half.
The press the Cards ran was turned up to an 11, especially whenever Shay Ijiwoye handled the ball. She has shown some shakiness in bringing the ball up the court with no one around her, so Williams hounded her in the third quarter.
After a triple from Roberts, Williams got a steal and a breakaway layup.
The Cardinal found success inside, breaking the pressure and attacking the rim.
Stanford cut the lead down to six points when Roberts completely took over the game, going on a personal 10-0 run where she scored in just about every way one can. She even got fouled on consecutive three-point attempts, one of which she made, giving her four shots at the charity stripe.
Roberts scored 14 of Louisville’s 22 points in the third as the lead grew as high as 20 points.
Louisville led 52-34 going into the final period.
The ghosts of blown lead’s past came back to haunt the Cards in the fourth quarter.
After making some lazy passes early in the quarter, the Cards gave the ball up for a number of easy layups in transition.
In an effort to combat the turnovers, Louisville tried to run quick offense which more often than not turned into a bad shot with plenty of time left on the shot clock.
Then the fouls came, as Louisville got whistled on a number of both questionable and obvious calls. This let Stanford put together a 9-0 run in under two minutes, cutting the lead down to seven points.
Curry responded with a triple to stop the bleeding, but the Cardinal kept marching. Tess Heel kept attacking the paint and scoring at will as Stanford cut the lead down to 63-59.
But like clockwork, Curry flew down the court and drew an and-1 on a driving layup.
After the team defense held strong, Louisville got the ball to Curry and the Cardinal were forced to foul. In fact, each time down the court, whether Stanford scored or not, Louisville would run the same exact play to get the ball to Curry.
It worked every time, and the Cards were able to put the game away at the line.
Louisville would win 74-65.
Closer to Madness
Like many games this season, the Cards showed promise and stagnation during one game.
Louisville’s defense was incredible for three quarters, taking what they had done to Cal and turning it up a notch against Stanford. The Cardinal were held to a pathetic 12.5% from three, and coughed the ball up to the tune of 18 turnovers.
However, the fourth quarter still came around and put the fear of a higher power in Louisville. Stanford nearly doubled their scoring output in the final quarter alone, scoring 31 of their 65.
Even with the questionable officiating in the middle of the fourth, Louisville put themselves in a position to sweat the outcome due to a drop in effort.
Roberts and Curry save the day, though, each having their time to play hero ball. Roberts scored a game-high 21 points, two off from her career-high, and added four assists. Curry scored 19 with three assists and three rebounds. 15 of Curry’s points came in the fourth quarter alone.
On paper, the win against a team that now has a losing record doesn’t really help the Cards. But they took care of business against a team that could have seriously hurt their tournament resume.
The Cards are now 17-7 on the year and 10-3 in the ACC. With each win, the Cards further solidify their tournament spot.
Photo Courtesy // Eli Dych, Louisville Athletics
