Louisville beats Notre Dame when it matters most 64-38
GREENSBORO, NC – Notre Dame falls to Louisville in the ACC semi-finals in their third matchup of the season.
“I thought that they set the tone from the beginning. You know, they went after us gotten in some foul trouble. And they pressured us for 40 minutes,” said Notre Dame Head Coach Niele Ivey.
A full game of pressure was part of the plan for the Cards, it was just a matter of executing down the line.
“We lead for 28 minutes of the game, at Notre Dame. We lead for 29 minutes of the game at our place on Sunday.
We just didn't finish, and obviously you know that that's a big part of it. But I thought today, we start to finish played extremely well,” said Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz.
The Cardinal's defense was suffocating.
“We turned the ball over 22 times didn't get chance to really get a flow offensively. So I would say I thought their defense was locked in,” Ivey added.
Not to mention the foul trouble.
Lately, Notre dame’s advantage has been their height, but with 7 of the 17 total fouls coming from Lauren Ebo and Maddy Westbeld, the guard play was affected.
“That foul trouble did. It was tough for sure. Yeah, just adjusting to that,” Notre Dame guard Sonia Citron added.
The adjustment was tough as a team.
Notre Dame only shot 31% from the field during the game.
Although the foul count was fairly even, (Notre Dame 17 – Louisville 18) the Irish only took 10 shots at the charity stripe and shot 50%.
Compared to the cards shooting 20 free throws and making 75%.
As of now, Notre Dame will host the first and second round of the NCAA tournament, starting Saturday March 17th.
More information about the Bracketology for the NCAA tournament can be found here.