Louisville routs Oregon St. to reach semifinal
Cardinals commit just three turnovers versus Beavers to tie NCAA tournament record.
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Louisville players proudly strutted around the court in championship T-shirts and hats, some adorned with a little piece of the net.
Coach Jeff Walz brushed off confetti dumped on him during an interview to climb the ladder and clip the rest of the nylon, happily twirling it to celebrate his top-seeded team’s dominant run through the Lexington Regional of the NCAA women’s tournament.
“It’s a great feeling,” Walz said. “I’m going to go home, and my 41⁄2-year-old and my 21⁄2-year-old [daughters], all they’re going to talk about is the confetti on the floor. That’s all they care about. To them, if we win, there’s confetti on the floor that I get to play on.”
Louisville’s next quest is collecting another net and more confetti in the Final Four next weekend in Columbus, Ohio.
Asia Durr scored 18 points, Myisha Hines-Allen had 16 and Louisville earned its first Final Four berth since 2013 with a 76-43 rout of No. 6 seed Oregon State on Sunday.
Playing its first regional final in four years and for the first time in school history as an NCAA No. 1 seed, the Cardinals (36-2) thoroughly ran the table while playing close to home. They never trailed in rolling to their 11th consecutive victory.
They outscored the Beavers 28-12 in the third quarter to break the game open and complete their fourgame run through the regional by an average margin of victory of 27.5 points.
The Cardinals controlled the scoring in the paint 32 points to 18, and scored 24 points off 17 turnovers by an Oregon State squad that had succeeded with precise passing.
“If we were able to get stops and go in transition, we were going to be confident,” Hines-Allen said. “Our shots were falling in the second half, and it all came down to defense.”
Even more impressive for Louisville: The Cardinals committed only three turnovers to tie an NCAA tournament record. This despite playing at a frenetic pace for much of the game.
It worked in getting good shots that fell for the final three quarters.
“That was huge,” said Durr, who made four of nine three-point shots and seven of 14 overall.
The Beavers (26-8) struggled in their bid of adding Louisville to their remarkable run of NCAA upsets after ousting No. 3 seed Tennessee and No. 2 Baylor last week.