Preview: Louisville Cardinals vs. Albany Great Danes

No. 1 Louisville Cardinals (25-4, 12-2 ACC) vs No. 16 Albany Great Danes (23-9, 13-5 Pac-12)

- Tipoff: Friday, Mar. 18th at 6:00 p.m. EST
- Location: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
- How To Watch: ESPN2
- How To Listen: WKRD 790-AM
- Betting Favorite: Louisville -33.5
- All-Time Series: First Meeting
- Last Meeting: N/A

Projected Starting Lineups

Louisville

G Hailey Van Lith (5-7, So.)
G Chelsie Hall (5-7, Gr.)
G Kianna Smith (6-0, R-Sr.)
F Emily Engstler (6-1, Sr.)
F Olivia Cochran (6-3, So.)

Albany

G Lilly Phillips (5-11, Fr.)
G Ellen Hahne (5-11, Sr.)
G Grace Heeps (5-11, Jr.)
G Kayla Cooper (6-0, So.)
F Helene Haegerstrand (6-1, Jr.)

Comparison

Louisville	Albany
Points Per Game	72.2	57.3
Opp. Points Per Game	55.0	48.6
Scoring Margin	+17.1	+8.7
FG Percentage	45.7%	41.0%
Opp. FG Percentage	36.5%	36.3%
3PT Percentage	36.6%	33.6%
Opp. 3PT Percentage	29.2%	28.6%
FT Percentage	72.1%	66.2%
Rebounds Per Game	39.0	35.5
Rebound Margin	+6.6	+6.7
Assists Per Game	15.9	12.8
Turnovers Per Game	14.4	16.6
Turnover Margin	+4.7	-0.4
Assist/Turnover Ratio	1.1	0.8
Steals Per Game	9.6	8.2
Blocks Per Game	4.4	3.5

Game Notes

Louisville

At 25-4 and No. 4 in the AP and USA Today polls, Louisville is a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in program history. The Cardinals were also a No. 1 seed in 2018 (Final Four) and 2019 (Elite Eight). They are the only team in the country to be a No. 1 seed in three of the last four tournaments. They are 2-0 all-time against No. 16 seeds.
Louisville is making its 24th NCAA Tournament appearance and 13th in 14 tournaments under head coach Jeff Walz. The Cardinals are playing in their 11th straight NCAA Tournament. Louisville is 37-23 all-time. They were 4-11 in their first 11 appearances and are 33-12 in their 12 appearances with Walz. They have moved on to the Sweet 16 10 times, the Elite Eight six times, Final Four three times (2009, 2013, 2018) and twice advanced to the title game.
Senior forward Emily Engstler and sophomore guard Hailey Van Lith were named to the All-ACC First Team. In addition, Engstler and Mykasa Robinson were named to the ACC All-Defensive Team, while Payton Verhulst was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team. Robinson earned All-Defensive Team honors for the second consecutive year. She is joined by Georgia Tech’s Lorela Cubaj as the only two players to make the All-Defensive Team the past two seasons
Emily Engstler has 10 double-doubles on the year, which ranks fourth in the ACC and are the most by a UofL player since Kylee Shook had 11 during the 2019-20 campaign. She ranks second in the ACC with 2.4 steals per game, ranks third with 6.6 defensive rebounds per game and 9.1 rebounds per game and ranks fifth with 1.8 blocks per game. She has led UofL in rebounds in 26 of 29 games.
Hailey Van Lith leads the team in scoring with 13.6 points per game and has led the team in scoring 11 times. She ranks 10th in ACC with 42.7 shooting percentage and 13th with 13.6 points per game. She reached double figures in 14 of 17 ACC games, including four 20-plus point performances and a 34-point game at Clemson. In the last seven regular season games, she averaged a team-high 18.6 points per game. She has made at least one 3-pointer in 13 of last 16 games. She shot 5-8 from deep against Duke, 6-6 at Clemson and 4-5 at Notre Dame. In ACC Play, she ranked sixth in the league with 15.4 points per game, while shooting 45.7 percent from the floor, which ranked eighth.
Mykasa Robinson has played a team-high eight NCAA Tournament games and is the only player entering her third NCAA Tournament at Louisville. This will mark Kianna Smith’s team-high fourth NCAA Tournament, as she played in two tournaments while at California (2018, 2019). This is Emily Engstler’s third NCAA Tournament and first with Louisville. She played in the 2019 and 2021 tournaments while at Syracuse.
Kianna Smith ranks second on the team with 11.8 points per game and nine times this season has led the team in scoring. She ranks fourth in the ACC with a 38.0 3-point field goal percentage and ranks 10th with 1.9 made 3-pointers per game.
In ACC play, Olivia Cochran ranked fourth on the team with 9.7 points per game, while pulling down 5.8 rebounds per game and shooting 50 percent from the floor and 75 percent from the stripe. Her 5.8 rebounds per game in ACC play ranked 18th in the league. She scored in double figures seven times in ACC play after having just one double digit scoring effort in non-conference play.
From 1/23 to 2/6, Liz Dixon had a 6-game stretch where she averaged 9.2 points and was 24-28 (.857) from the field. In wins at Clemson and Syracuse, she scored a combined 30 points and was 14-14 from the floor. She scored a season-high 18 points on 8-8 shooting, while pulling down seven rebounds, in the win at Syracuse. At Clemson, she scored 12 points on 6-6 shooting.
Louisville is limiting opponents to just 55.0 points per game, which ranks second in the ACC and 18th in the country. In nine games they limited opponents to 49 points or less, including a program-record tying 25 points vs. Bellarmine.

Albany

With a defense-first mentality, UAlbany is holding its opponents to just 48.6 points per game to own the second-best scoring defense in the nation.
In addition to scoring defense, the Great Danes are 36th in the country, allowing just a .363 field goal percentage from their opponents.
UAlbany opened the season on a strong note, defeating Hofstra (11/10) for the first time in program history. The 29-point victory over the Pride served as the first of seven games, so far, in which the Great Danes won by at least 20 points.
The Great Danes closed their non-conference slate with a 7-4 record.
UAlbany split the Hartford, Vermont, and Stony Brook series and swept NJIT, Binghamton, UMBC, UMass Lowell, and New Hampshire.
UAlbany was undefeated at home (13-0), until the second-to-last game of the season when Maine beat the Great Danes, 49-45, on February 23. They finished with a 16-1 record at SEFCU Arena.
Closing the regular season, UAlbany came back from a 16-point deficit in the fourth beginning of the fourth quarter to beat Stony Brook, 57-56, on February 26.
After defeating New Hampshire, 49-44, in the America East Quarterfinal (3/5), the Great Danes beat Vermont, 67-54, in the semifinal (3/8).
Most recently, the Great Danes were crowned America East Champions after they defeated Maine, 56-47, in the America East Final on Friday, March 13. The Great Dane win marks the first America East Championship title since 2017.
Junior Helene Haegerstrand (386, 12.1 per game) and sophomore Kayla Cooper (355, 11.1 per game) lead the team with their respective point tallies.
Redshirt-sophomore Abby Robinson leads the team, shooting 75% (6-8) from 28 minutes of play in 11 games. Senior Lucia Decortes holds a .539 (69-128) shooting percentage, leading all players who have seen the court for more than 40 minutes this season.
Haegerstrand leads from outside the arc with a .389 (56-144) shooting percentage.
Cooper leads the team as the only player with over 150 rebounds. She has totaled 231 (7.2 pg) so far with 150 defensive and 81 offensive rebounds. Decortes passed the 100-rebound mark against Maine, totaling 136 so far, while Ellen Hahne notched her 100th rebound in the America East Quarterfinal, tallying 118 so far.
Redshirt-sophomore Morgan Haney and freshman Lilly Phillips share a team-high 71 assists.
Haney (43) holds the transition spotlight with her steal total.
Decortes has compiled a team-high 44 blocks. Eleven players on the 13-person roster have totaled at least two blocks.
Every single player from the 13-person roster saw action and contributed with a point or an assist in the season-opening game - Hofstra.
Of the 1,834 points scored in 32 games, the bench has tallied 531 points. This includes half (26) of the 52 points scored at Merrimack (11/16), almost half (29) of the 60 points scored against Bryant (12/1), almost half (32) of the 65 points scored against Canisius (12/15), and almost half (28) of the 61 points scored against New Hampshire (2/16). The bench totaled over half of the points scored in the America East Quarterfinal against New Hampshire (26 of 49 points) and the America East Semifinal against Vermont (38 of 67 points) and the America East Final against Maine (23 of 56 points).
As a team, UAlbany is hitting 41.0% from the field, 33.6% outside the arc, and 66.2% from the free-throw line.
The Great Danes are averaging 57.3 points per game, 35.5 rebounds per game, and 12.8 assists per game.

(Photo of Jeff Walz: Scott Utterback - USA TODAY NETWORK)

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