The No. 5 seed Louisville women’s basketball team is gearing up for a battle as they are set to face the No. 4 seed Texas Longhorns in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday. The Cardinals are coming off a thrilling 83-81 win over No. 12 seed Drake in the first round Saturday night.

In the win over the Bulldogs, neither team had a lead larger than seven and the game featured 14 ties and 12 lead changes. Hailey Van Lith was the catalyst offensively for the Cardinals as she led all scorers with 26 points. It was her career-best in an NCAA Tournament game and it is tied for eighth in program history for most in an NCAA Tournament game. She scored 19 of her 26 points in the second half and scored nine of the last 11 points to close out the game for the Cardinals.

Mykasa Robinson also had a strong game for the Cardinals as she had a career-high 14 points against the Bulldogs. She led the team with seven assists, tied for the team lead with five rebounds and had three steals. The seven assists were tied for seventh in program history for the most in an NCAA Tournament game. 

This will be the 17th time in program history that the Cardinals have advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and the 14th time under Walz. The Cardinals are 11-2 in the second round under Walz and 11-6 all-time. They are 4-2 all-time against No. 4 seeds and are 4-1 against No. 4 seeds under Walz.

Date: Monday, March 20
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Site: Austin, Texas | Moody Center (10,000)
TV: ESPN (Eric Frede, play-by-play; Tamika Catchings, analyst)
Radio: 93.9-FM WLCL (Nick Curran, play-by-play; Cortnee Walton, analyst)
Last Meeting: W, 71-63 (Nov. 20, 2022 at Paradise Island, Bahamas)
Series History: Louisville trails 1-2 (0-1 road, 1-1 neutral)

ABOUT THE LONGHORNS
Texas enters the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 26-9 record and were 14-4 in Big 12 play. The Longhorns won a share of the Big 12 regular season title and advanced to the Big 12 championship game before falling to Iowa State. The Longhorns are 15-2 at home in the Moody Center this season heading into the matchup with the Cardinals. The Longhorns are one of the best shot blocking teams in the nation as they rank third nationally with 6.0 blocks per game. The Longhorns also attack the offensive glass and rank 13th in the nation with 15.3 offensive rebounds per game. Rori Harmon is fourth nationally with 7.5 assists per game and she missed the earlier matchup this season between the Longhorns and Cardinals in the Bahamas. Harmon is 16th nationally with a 2.39 assist to turnover ratio.

Texas Tournament History – This the 35th appearance for the Longhorns in the NCAA Tournament and the ninth-straight tournament they have earned a bid for. The Longhorns have made three Final Fours all-time and were the 1985-86 National Champions. This is the 26th time in program history that the Longhorns have made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns are 17-8 all-time in the second round and have won their second-round games in each of the last two tournaments. This will be the seventh time the Longhorns have faced a team from the ACC in the NCAA Tournament and they are 2-4 in those games against ACC opponents.

Series History – The Cardinals will face off with Texas for just the fourth time in program history and the second time this season. The Cardinals defeated the Longhorns back on Nov. 20 in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in Paradise Island, Bahamas. It was the second time the two teams had met in a non-conference tournament as they faced off in the Torneo Cancun de Basquetbol in Cancun, Mexico back in 2000. This will also be the second time the two teams have met in the NCAA Tournament. The Cardinals and Longhorns met in Austin in the 1983 Tournament in the first round. It was the first ever appearance for the Cardinals in the NCAA Tournament in program history.

Last Meeting (Nov. 20, 2022) – Sixth-ranked Louisville scrapped on the boards and gave coach Jeff Walz the level of fight he didn’t see a night before. Third-ranked Texas did the same for coach Vic Schaefer. It just wasn’t enough to beat the Cardinals and avoid an 0-2 start in the Battle 4 Atlantis. Chrislyn Carr scored 19 points to help Louisville beat Texas 71-63 in Sunday night’s consolation bracket, sending the Longhorns to their worst start in nearly a quarter-century. Morgan Jones and Hailey Van Lith each added 18 points for the Cardinals (4-1), who pulled away in the fourth quarter to bounce back from their first loss of the season. ”I thought we fought more today,” Walz said. His team showed it, notably with a 10-0 run during a critical fourth-quarter stretch that finally gave the Cardinals control of the game.

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@UofLSheriff50. Louisville native, University of Louisville Business School Grad c/o 2004. Co-Founder of TheCrunchZone.com

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