Cardinals overcome near-collapse to win
TOP 25/SEC WOMEN
NO. 2 LOUISVILLE 72, VIRGINIA TECH 63
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Asia Durr was having a big day and No. 2 Louisville was rolling, up 20 points midway through the third quarter.
Then it was Virginia Tech that grabbed the momentum, and it took Durr and fellow senior Sam Fuehring to help the Cardinals hang on.
Durr scored 34 points and Fuehring had 21 points and 13 rebounds as the Cardinals overcame a near-collapse in a 72-63 victory Sunday.
“I got some good shots out there,” Durr said after making 11 of 21 shots overall, including 5 of 7 from beyond the threepoint line. “My teammates found me on the court. My coach was calling some great plays to free me, so that’s all I was trying to do was make a play.”
The Cardinals (23-1, 10-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) won their ninth in a row. Fuehring made consecutive driving baskets in the final quarter after the Hokies had closed to within 62-56 with under four minutes to play, allowing Louisville to avoid an upset.
“That was a huge win for us,” Durr said. The 30-point game was the 12th of her career.
That the Hokies made it interesting was no surprise to Louisville Coach Jeff Walz.
“They’re a really good basketball team. They can make shots in a hurry and there’s some years you just don’t get the bounces,” he said. “You can sit there and probably take 10 minutes out of their 10 conference games and instead of them being 2-8, they could easily be 7-3. I mean, it’s something else and that’s really what I tried to explain to our kids throughout the whole game.”
Dara Mabrey scored 17 points to lead the Hokies (158, 2-8), who scored the last 11 points of the third quarter to get within 51-42, then scored six consecutive midway through the final quarter to get within 62-56. But Mabrey missed two free throws with 3:49 to play that would have pulled Virginia Tech within 62-58.
Regan Magarity, who had 14 points and 8 rebounds, scored inside with 34 seconds left to make it 66-63, but Durr hit two free throws with 25 seconds remaining for the Cardinals, boosting their lead back to five.
Durr hit two more free throws with 13.2 seconds left to keep the Cardinals on top of the ACC standings.
In other Top 25/SEC women’s games Sunday, Sabrina Ionescu had 27 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists, and No. 3 Oregon ran its NCAA-best winning streak to 16 games by running away from No. 11 Stanford 88-48. … Arike Ogunbowale scored 27 points and Jessica Shepard added 26 as No. 4 Notre Dame got its transition game going again to beat No. 24 Florida State 97-70. … Teaira McCowan had 24 points and 15 rebounds, Jordan Danberry added 20 points as No. 6 Mississippi State pulled away late to beat Tennessee 91-63. … Destiny Slocum scored 26 points and No. 7 Oregon State overcame an 11-point deficit to beat California 82-74. … Natisha Hiedeman scored 22 points, Allazia Blockton had 19 and No. 8 Marquette beat Villanova 93-55 for its 12th consecutive victory. … Kaila Charles scored 17 points and No. 10 Maryland extended its lead in the Big Ten by beating No. 20 Rutgers 62-48. … Miranda Drummond made 6 of 9 three-pointers and scored 24 points, and No. 15 Syracuse beat Boston College 96-69. … Megan Gustafson had 19 of her 29 points in the second half as No. 16 Iowa pulled away to beat Ohio State 78-52. … Kennedy Burke scored 26 points, Michaela Onyenwere added 25 points for the sophomore’s 11th 20-plus game of the season and UCLA beat No. 17 Utah 100-90. … Beatrice Mompremier scored 23 points with 13 rebounds and No. 25 Miami beat Pittsburgh 65-51, keeping Pitt winless in the Atlantic Coast Conference.