Louisville Dominates Texas in Rematch, Punches Ticket to Sweet Sixteen

AUSTIN, Tex. - The Louisville women's basketball program is still dancing.

After surviving an upset bid from Drake in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, it was Louisville who pulled off the upset in the Round of 32, obliterating Texas 73-51 Monday at the Moody Center.

The fifth-seeded Cardinals (25-11, 12-6 ACC) punch their ticket to the Sweet Sixteen with the victory over the fourth-seeded Longhorns (26-10, 14-4 Big 12). It's their sixth straight appearance under head coach Jeff Walz, and 12th overall in his tenure.

This is Louisville's second time upsetting Texas during the 2022-23 season. Back on Nov. 20 during the regular season, the then-No. 6 Cardinals took down the then-No. 3 Longhorns 71-63 in the Bahamas as part of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Louisville now heads to Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington for a showdown with No. 8 Ole Miss, who upset top-seeded Stanford Sunday night. Tip-off is scheduled for Friday, Mar. 24, with time and television designation to be determined later this week.

Once again, the Cardinals were led by another dominant performance from Hailey Van Lith. The junior guard scored a game-high 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting, and has now scored 20+ in six of her last seven NCAA Tournament appearances. Morgan Jones also broke double figures with 10 points, Mykasa Robinson and Chrislyn Carr had nine, and nine Cardinals for the game scored.

Like Drake had done to them in the previous game, the Cardinals abused Texas down low. They shot 46.9 percent from the field despite a 3-of-13 mark on three-point attempts, won the rebounding battle 42-34 and 24-13 in the second half, and shot 17-28 on layups for 38 points in the paint. Meanwhile, Texas shot only 34.5 percent for the game and 1-for-10 on threes, coughed up the ball 13 times, and was just 7-of-22 on layups.

Louisville wasted zero time setting the tone and showing no fear, scoring the first seven points of the game, with Van Lith scoring eight of the Cardinals' first 12 points. That being said, they did struggle a bit with shot selection right out of the gates, shooting 7-of-17 in the first quarter, while getting dominated 13-6 on the boards. Had it not been for seven forced turnovers for nine points, it wouldn't have been tied at 16 a piece through the first 10 minutes.

The second quarter is where Louisville really started to enforce their will on both ends of the court, particularly down low in the post. They opened up the period on a 9-0 run, and out-scored Texas 21-7 to head into halftime with a decisive 37-23 lead. The Longhorns were held to just 3-for-15 in the quarter after going 7-of-14 in the opening period, while Louisville shot 9-of-17 across seven different players. In fact, the Cardinals had more points in the paint during the second quarter with 12 than UT had points, period.

Louisville looked out of sorts once they returned from the locker room, hitting just one of their first 12 shots of the second half. Texas also struggled to make shots during the period, going 3-of-12 from the period, but used the free throw line to pull with nine points.

But after that, the Cardinals put their foot on the Longhorns' throat, immediately firing off a 12-0 run to seize control. From the moment that Texas cut the lead to only single digits, Louisville shot 13-of-18 across the final stretch of the third quarter and fourth quarter, while holding UT to just 6-of-14 in the final period. UofL led by as much as 27 before putting it into cruise control to end the game.

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