The No. 5 seed Louisville women’s basketball team is heading back to the Sweet 16 after a dominant 73-51 win over No. 4 seed Texas Monday night on their home court at the Moody Center. The score was tied after the first quarter but the Cardinals took over from them, out-scoring the Longhorns 57-35 over the final 30 minutes of the game. With the win, the Cardinals are back in the Sweet 16 for the sixth-straight season, the third-longest active streak in the country. 

This will be the 12th overall appearance for the Cardinals in the Sweet 16, all under head coach Jeff Walz. The Cardinals have been to 11 Sweet 16’s since the 2011 season, the third most in the country during that span. 

Hailey Van Lith led all scorers with 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting to go with three rebounds, tied for a team-best three assists and two steals. Liz Dixon had a team-high 10 rebounds with five points, an assist, a block and a steal. Morgan Jones tallied 10 points, Mykasa Robinson and Chrislyn Carr both had nine as eight different players have five points or more.

The Cardinals got off to a fast start against the Longhorns as they started the game on a 7-0 run. Similar to the Drake game, the Cardinals were active in the passing lanes and forced six turnovers in the opening five minutes. Seven of the Cardinals first 12 points of the game came off Texas turnovers. The Longhorns responded to close out the quarter and it was all square at 16-16 after the first.

Another strong start to a quarter for the Cardinals in the second as they opened on a 9-0 run. They held the Longhorns scoreless over the first 3:23 of the quarter and forced the Longhorns to use a timeout. The Cardinals had another 6-0 spurt during the middle of the quarter to push the lead to double digits. Louisville held the Longhorns scoreless over the final 3:02 of the quarter and took its largest lead of the night into the half at 37-23. The Cardinals outscored the Longhorns 21-7 in the second quarter.

Nine different Cardinals scored in the first half and Van Lith led all scorers with 10. Cochran had six first half points on 3-of-4 shooting while Morgan Jones provided valuable minutes off the bench with four points and a team-high five rebounds. Carr had four points to go with three rebounds and three assists.

The Longhorns clawed back in with a 7-0 run early on in the third quarter. The Cardinals were able to end the run with two free throws from Van Lith to push the lead back up to double digits. On the next offensive possession, the Cardinals got two clutch offensive rebounds and Liz Dixon connected on a layup and was fouled in the process to thwart the moment from the Longhorns. The Cardinals grabbed the momentum back with a 9-0 run of their own, capped off with a three from Chrislyn Carr to stretch the lead out to 49-31 with 3:17 left in the quarter. The Cardinals hit five of their last seven shots in the quarter and held a 56-35 lead heading into the fourth.

The Cardinals did not let up into the fourth as they fired off another 6-0 run to begin the quarter and forced Texas to burn another timeout. Texas never got closer than 22 points the rest of the game as the Cardinals sealed their 25th win of the season for the 11th-straight season.

With the win, Louisville is heading to Washington for the Seattle 4 Regional next week. The Cardinals are set to face off with the No. 8 seed Ole Miss Rebels in the Sweet 16 on Friday, March 24 from Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. The tip time and TV designation will be determined at a later date.

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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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