Louisville Falls to Kentucky in Ranked Rivalry Showdown

Press Release from the University of Louisville:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The No. 21/19 Louisville women's basketball team (4-2, 1-0 ACC) was done in by a poor third quarter and fell to No. 20/18 Kentucky (7-0, 0-0 SEC), 72-62, Saturday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center. The Cards trailed by two at halftime but shot 3-for-20 (15%) in the third quarter and were unable to get back into the game.

Laura Ziegler tallied her third double-double of the season with 18 points and a team-high 11 rebounds. It was the fourth time this season she has had 10 or more rebounds in a game. Tajianna Roberts led all scorers with 22 points, one shy of her career high. It was her second 20-point outing this season.

Kentucky scored 11 of the first 13 points of the game to build an early lead. Roberts was all the offense the Cards had early as she scored the first seven points for Louisville to cut into the Wildcats lead. The Cards kept coming as they pulled off a 10-0 run that was capped by a steal and score by Roberts to give Louisville the first lead of the afternoon. Roberts scored 11 points in the first and the Cardinals trailed by one, 19-18, after the opening 10 minutes.

Roberts continued her hot start with the first six points of the second quarter for the Cards. Ziegler followed with a banked-in three to cap off a 9-0 run for the Cards. The rest of the quarter went back and forth between the two teams and Kentucky took a 37-35 lead into the half.

The first half had five ties and 16 lead changes as both teams battled back and forth. Roberts had a game-high 19 points over the first 20 minutes and Ziegler hauled in a game-best six rebounds.

The Cardinals shooting cooled in the third quarter and Kentucky was able to go on a run and push their lead to double digits. The Cards were held scoreless for over seven minutes and trailed 57-41 heading into the fourth quarter.

Louisville responded to start the fourth quarter. The Cards went on an 8-0 run and forced a timeout from Kentucky after a three from Ziegler. The Cards would get the deficit down to eight a couple of times in the quarter but that was the closest they could get as Kentucky closed out the win.

The Cards will be back in action after the Thanksgiving holiday with a multi-team event they are hosting with Bellarmine over the weekend. Louisville will host the games at the KFC Yum! Center on Friday and Sunday while the Saturday games will be held at Knights Hall on Bellarmine's campus. Tickets for the Yum! Center games will gain you admission for both games on that date.

Friday's schedule begins with East Tennessee State vs. Bellarmine at 4:30pm followed by Louisville vs. Eastern Illinois at 7pm. At Knights Hall on Saturday, it is Bellarmine vs. Eastern Illinois at 1pm and then Louisville vs. East Tennessee State at 3:30pm. Sunday's schedule starts with Eastern Illinois vs. East Tennessee State at 11:30am and then concludes with Louisville vs. Bellarmine at 2pm. Louisville's games on Friday and Sunday will be streamed on ACC Network Extra. Saturday's game and the rest of the neutral games will be streamed on ESPN+.

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