Louisville Women’s basketball team ended their two game snag with an impressive road win over a top 5 ranked North Carolina State team 66-59 on Thursday.
Kylee Shook was coming off a 38 minute 10 points, 10 rebounds and 7 block performance against NC State.
Jazmine Jones had 19 points 8 rebounds and went 3-4 from beyond the arc. Elizabeth Balogun tallied 24 minutes, 9 points and 7 rebounds in her return to the court in a Cardinal uniform.
In an earlier tilt with Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, Louisville brought it to Notre Dame early and often. Cards were up 27-11 after the first quarter and never relinquished it’s strong stranglehold on the game. Louisville had four players (Dana Evans, Jazmine Jones, Kylee Shook and Elizabeth Balogun) with double figures, led by Dana Evans. Yacine Diop flirted with a triple double with 9 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists.
Today’s Starting lineup are as follows: Dana Evan’s (18.3 ppg) Jazmine Jones (14.1ppg, 5.2rpg), Elizabeth Balogun (8.9ppg, 5.1rpg), Bionca Dunham (6.0ppg, 4.9rpg) and Kylee Shook (9.2ppg, 7.8rpg).
Balogun forces the 1st turnover of the game and then scores the game’s first basket. Notre Dame played almost strictly zone the entire first quarter and forced Louisville into 4 turnovers. Louisville forced 8 first quarter turnovers but Notre Dame shot 50% from the field. Cards up 18-16 after one.
Cards start the 2nd quarter on a 7-2 run forcing Notre Dame to call a timeout, Cards up 25-18 with 7:29 left.
Louisville continued to extend their pressure and harass the Notre Dame ball handles throughout the first half. Louisville goes on a 15-5 run that resulted in a ND timeout with 5:55 left, Cards up 31-21. Cards continue to their run pushing the lead to 15, forcing coach Muffet to call another timeout. Both teams get a little sloppy in the final few minutes of the 2nd quarter, but the Cards take 40-26 lead into halftime.
Halftime stats:
Mykasa Robinson: 2 points 4 rebounds 5 assists and 1 charge taken
Yacine Diop 10 points and 3 rebounds
Notre Dame 11 fgs and 13 turnovers
Cards start off the second half with a paint touch and bucket by Bionca Dunham. Louisville blitzes Notre Dame in the first half of the 3rd with a 15-2 run after Dana Evans went 1/3 from the free throw line. Cards up 55-28. The Louisville Cardinals were able to stretch the lead out to thirty (63-33) in the third quarter as they continued to force ND into turnovers. At the midway point of the 3rd quarter, Notre Dame 14fgs to 18 turnovers. Both teams traded baskets as the score was 67-40 at the end of the third quarter.
The Cardinals took their feet of the gas as they outscored Notre Dame 15-9 in the fourth quarter, but got in some reserves. Cards ran away from Notre Dame in the second quarter and continued running for the duration of the game. Louisville gets their second straight blowout win over their rivals in South Bend by a score of 82-49.
Louisville finished with four players in double digits scoring: Dana Evans (18), Elizabeth Balogun (11), Kylee Shook (11) and Yacine Diop (15) off the bench. Mykasa Robinson added 6 points, 7 rebounds and a career high 9 assists. Louisville shot 52.4% from the field, while limiting Notre Dame to 36.8%. Louisville also scored 24 points off of turnovers and had 33 bench points. The largest lead was 34 points for the Cards.
Next up for Louisville is an away game, but a homecoming of sort for former Georgia Tech and current UofL players Elizabeth Balogun and Elizabeth Dixon. The Cards will continue to fight for a first round bye in the ACC tournament and try to improve their chances on getting a number 1 seed for the NCAA tournament.
