The No. 17/16 Louisville women’s basketball team (13-2, 2-0) secured a 61-44 victory over Duke (9-5, 1-2) this evening to earn the 1,000th win in program history. The Cardinals are the 27th program in the nation and the fourth program in the ACC to achieve this feat.
The Cards played a dominant first half on both sides of the ball, holding Duke to a season-low four points in the second quarter alone. Louisville went on a 16-0 run that elapsed 9:18 in the first half, putting them up 35-19 after two frames.
Coming out of the locker room, Duke was able to get a few more points on the board but could not stop an immediate 8-3 run by the Cards. Louisville has now won 41-straight games when allowing 59 points or less. The Cardinals improve to 53-0 at home against unranked ACC opponents since joining the league in 2014-15. The 44 points allowed were the fewest points scored by the Blue Devils this season.
Kiki Jefferson led the Cards with 15 points and pulled down four rebounds to go along with two steals. The graduate student has scored in double figures 10 times and has had multiple steals in seven games this season.
Olivia Cochran scored in double figures for the seventh-straight game, tallying 13 points to go along with a team-high six rebounds and three steals. This marks the fifth time this season that she has had three steals in a game.
Merissah Russell added 10 points and two steals, her second consecutive game in double figures and with multiple steals.
With 12 team steals, tonight’s victory marks the eighth game of the season in which Louisville has had at least 10 steals.
The Cards forced 27 turnovers against the Blue Devils in the win. It was the 11th time this season that they have forced 20 or more turnovers in a game. The 27 turnovers were the most in a game for the Blue Devils since January 9, 2020, when they had 28 against Virginia.
The Cardinals will have to wait a bit until they are back on the court again as they have their conference bye game this upcoming Sunday. Louisville will be back in action on Thursday, January 11, as they travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Pitt Panthers. The Cardinals and Panthers will square off at 6 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast nationally on the ACC Network.
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