Louisville Suffers Disastrous Third Quarter, Falls to Michigan in NCAA Tournament

The Cardinals's 2025-26 campaign comes to an end in the Sweet 16 against the Wolverines.

Mar 28, 2026; Fort Worth, TX, USA; Louisville Cardinals forward Laura Ziegler (0) controls the ball as Michigan Wolverines defends during the first half at Dickies Arena. Mandatory Credit: Chris Jones-Imagn Images | Chris Jones-Imagn Images

FORT WORTH, Tex. - The Louisville women's basketball program's season has officially come to an end.

Squaring off with Michigan in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, the Cardinals could not pull off the upset, falling to the Wolverines 71-52 on Saturday from Dickies Arena.

After falling behind by a couple points in the early goings of the second half, second-seeded and No. 9 AP ranked Michigan (28-6, 15-3 Big Ten) then exploded, going on a 25-6 run to end the third quarter - including a back-breaking 18-0 run.

Third-seeded and No. 13 AP ranked Louisville finished year 19 under head coach Jeff Walz with a 29-8 overall record, which includes a 15-3 mark in regular season ACC play. They narrowly fall short of earning their first 30-win season since their 2018-19 campaign.

Despite a good start to the game, Louisville seemed to be out of sorts for large swaths of the game - especially on offense. They only shot it 35.4 percent from the field and 3-of-14 on three-point tries, and had as many turnovers as assists (18).

Defensively, except for forcing 17 turnovers, the Cardinals didn't offer much pushback down low. Michigan shot it 46.7 percent despite a 4-of-13 showing on threes, and out-rebounded UofL 42-to-33.

Elif Istanbulluoglu was the only Louisville player to crack double figures scoring, finishing with 18 points. Olivia Olson for Michigan scored a game-high 19 points.

Louisville produced stifling defense right out of the gates. They held Michigan to only 4-of-14 in the first quarter, including missing their first six and not scoring until the 3:37 mark of the first half, and forced the Wolverines to cough it up five times in the opening period. Despite only shooting 6-of-17 in the first quarter with six turnovers, the Cardinals still scored the first eight points of the game, and held a 15-9 advantage heading into the second quarter.

Louisville started to find their footing on the offensive end early in the second quarter, hitting five of their first six attempts to push their lead to as much as 11. However, not only did they hit just one of their final nine tries in the period, their defense took a bit of a step back. Michigan shot 9-of-14 in the second, which included hitting their final five to help end the quarter on an 18-2 run and put the Cards down 32-27 at the half.

UofL had momentum early in the third quarter, opening the period on a 7-0 run and making five of their first six shots to briefly jump back in front. But after that, the bottom completely fell out from under them.

Not only did they hit just one of their remaining six attempts in the third, after U-M missed their first four tries after halftime, the Wolverines went 10-of-13 in the remainder of the period. Louisville might have scored the first seven points of the quarter, but Michigan out-scored them by 19 over the remaining 7:33 to expand their lead to 57-40 by the end of the quarter.

In the fourth, the Cardinals comeback efforts came up well short. They only shot just 5-of-20 in the period despite the Wolverines going just 5-of-15, only trimming their deficit to as little as 16.

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(Photo of Laura Ziegler: Chris Jones - Imagn Images)