WBB: Cards Host Stanford

Mark BlankenbakerFebruary 9, 2025

The Louisville women’s basketball team (16-7, 9-3 ACC) is finishing up its three-game homestand this weekend as the Cards welcome in another west coast newcomer to the ACC. Louisville will host Stanford (11-11, 3-8 ACC) on Sunday, February 9 at the KFC Yum! Center to close out the recent stretch of home games. The Cardinal and the Cardinals will square off at 12 p.m. ET and it will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Louisville bounced back with a 70-63 win over No. 21 Cal this past Thursday, its second ranked win of the season. The Cardinals defense made a difference in the win as it limited Cal to 6-for-28 (21.4 percent) from behind the arc. Coming into the game, Cal was shooting 35.8 percent from three on the season.

The Golden Bears had two of the top three-point shooters in the country in Ioanna Krimili and Lulu Twidale. The pair were first and second in the country and ranked in the Top 10 nationally in three pointers made on the season. In Thursday’s game, the Cards limited the pair to 3-for-17 shooting from behind the arc.

Graduate forward Olivia Cochran reached another milestone in her Louisville career in the win over Cal. She scored a team high and tied a season-high with 18 points to go with a team-best nine rebounds. With her second free throw in the third quarter, Cochran eclipsed 1,500 points for her career, just the 13th player in program history to hit that mark at Louisville.

Louisville continues to get production from its freshman class against Cal. Imari Berry played just 10 minutes against the Golden Bears but logged 14 points on 4-for-5 shooting from the floor and 2-for-3 from behind the arc. She also hauled in three rebounds and was +11 during her time on the court. Coming off a career high 10 rebounds, Mackenly Randolph had another strong effort off the bench with four points and four rebounds as she was +15 in her 17 minutes of action.

PROMOTIONS

Celebration of Black Culture – Louisville Women’s Basketball observes Black History Month with a celebration of Black Culture. Special edition uniforms will be worn for this game.
Photo Opportunity – Make sure to check out the photo booth outside Section 101 as it is inspired by the Honoring Black Excellence uniforms the players will be wearing.
Autographs – Keeping with tradition, the team will be available for postgame autographs.

Date: Sunday, February 9
Time: 12 p.m. ET
Site: Louisville, Ky. | KFC Yum! Center (22,090)
TV: ESPN2 (Beth Mowins, play-by-play; Stephanie White, analyst)
Radio: 93.9-FM The Ville (Nick Curran, play-by-play; Cortnee Walton, analyst)
Series History: Series is tied 1-1 (0-0 home, 0-0 road, 1-1 neutral)
Last Meeting: L, 63-78 (Mar. 30, 2021 at San Antonio, Texas)

ABOUT THE CARDINAL
Stanford comes into Sunday’s matchup with an 11-11 overall record and are 3-8 in ACC play this season. The Cardinal have wins over Florida State (89-84), Wake Forest (74-71) and Pitt (58-46) in their inaugural season in the ACC and are coming off a 96-47 loss at No. 3 Notre Dame this pas Thursday. Stanford is one of the better shooting teams from behind the arc in the league this season. The Cardinal are third in the ACC and rank 17th nationally with a 36.5 three-point field goal percentage. Stanford also crashes the boards well as they are third in the league and 31st nationally with 28.1 defensive rebounds per game. Stanford is fourth in the league with a 5.1 rebounding margin. Nunu Agara leads the Cardinal with eight double-doubles on the season, a mark that is sixth in the ACC and 46th nationally.

Series History – This will be just the third all-time meeting between the two schools and the first matchup to occur on one of the two campuses. The previous two meetings between Stanford and Louisville have occurred in the NCAA Tournament and the series is split 1-1. The Cardinals fell to Stanford in the bubble in San Antonio in the 2021 Elite Eight. In the first meeting between the two schools, Louisville came away with a dominant 86-59 win over Stanford in the 2018 Sweet 16 in Lexington en route to the program’s third Final Four.

Last Meeting (Mar. 30, 2021) – Dana Evans finished with a game-high 24 points, but Louisville (26-4) couldn’t hang on to a 14-point second half lead and fell 78-63 to top overall seed Stanford (29-2) in the NCAA Elite Eight on Tuesday night. Louisville had been playing stifling defense the entire tournament. Coming into Tuesday night’s game, the Cardinals were allowing a tournament-low 46 points a game and teams were shooting just 29.5% against them. They held Stanford to just 26 points in the first half and led 38-26 thanks to some strong play from Evans, who had 10 points early. Louisville led 43-29 midway through the third quarter, but Stanford had a stretch where they scored 13 consecutive points to take its first lead since early in the game. The teams traded baskets the rest of the period and the Cardinals were up 50-48 heading into the final quarter. But, Stanford scored the first 10 points of the fourth to go up 58-50. That run was capped by Kiana Williams’ 3-pointer. The San Antonio native had a rough start to the game, missing 11 of her first 12 shots, but she hit four shots in a row to help Stanford build its lead.