Louisville Triumphant at Cal to Sweep West Coast Road Trip

Press Release from the University of Louisville:

BERKELEY, Calif — The No. 7 Louisville women's basketball team (21-3, 11-0 ACC) battled through a tough first half and came away with a 71-59 win over Cal (13-10, 4-6 ACC) Sunday afternoon at Haas Pavilion. With the win, Louisville improves to 11-0 in ACC play, their best ACC start in program history.

The win was Louisville's 14th in a row and it's the longest active winning streak in the ACC. The Cards also swept the West Coast swing, beating Stanford and Cal on the road trip. They are just the third women's ACC team to win both games in their west coast road trip.

Tajianna Roberts led the way for the Cardinals with a team high 21 points, her team-high fourth 20-point game of the season. Roberts tied for the team lead with five assists. Elif Istanbulluoglu battled in the post all afternoon and finished with 15 points and seven rebounds and four assists. Laura Ziegler scored in double figures again with 14 points and tied with Roberts with five assists to go with five rebounds.

It was another strong first quarter for Mackenly Randolph on Sunday. She scored five points and was 1-for-1 from behind the arc after going 3-for-3 from three in the first on Thursday. Louisville had a 7-0 run and finished the quarter on a 6-0 to take a 17-11 lead after the opening 10 minutes.

Louisville struggled from the floor in the second quarter, hitting just one of their first 12 shots in the period. The Cardinals defense was stout in the second, holding the Golden Bears to just 2-for-9 shooting in the quarter. Heading into the half, Louisville held a 28-24 lead.

Cal came out of the half and made their first four shots to pull themselves in front. Louisville responded with a run of their own, with back-to-back threes from Roberts and Istanbulluoglu to regain the lead. Out of the media timeout, Roberts hit two more threes to extend the Cards' run to 12-1 as they hit five of seven shots. Roberts scored 12 points in the third and the Cards took a 50-42 lead into the final quarter.

The Cards put the game away early in the fourth quarter, thanks to an 8-0 run. Six of the eight points came from Ziegler as she converted a layup and the foul and then followed it up with a three in the corner to put the Cards up double digits. Louisville had multiple three-point play opportunities in the fourth as Roberts and Istanbulluolgu converted in the lane and at the line. The lead got up to 18 in the fourth before the Cards put in the bench to finish out the game.

Louisville returns to campus this week with a big matchup on deck at the KFC Yum! Center. The Cardinals will welcome the 16th-ranked Duke Blue Devils to town as the final two teams undefeated in ACC play are set to meet on Thursday, February 5. The Cards and Golden Bears will square off at 7 p.m. ET and it will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.

More Cardinals Stories