Stanford rallies to beat Louisville

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Lexie Hull scored 21 points and Stanford reached the Final Four by rallying for a 78-63 victory over Louisville on Tuesday night.

Next up for the top-seeded Cardinal is South Carolina on Friday night in a rematch of the

2017 national semifinals. Stanford dropped that one 62-53, ending its previous appearance in the Final Four.

UConn and Arizona meet in the other national semifinal.

Stanford (29-2) trailed by 12 midway through the third quarter before scoring 13 consecutive points to take its first lead since early in the game.

The teams traded baskets the rest of the period and No 2 seed Louisville (26-4) was up 50-48 heading into the final quarter.

The Cardinal scored the first 10 points of the fourth to go up 58-50. That run was capped by Kiana Williams’ 3-pointer. The San Antonio native had a rough start to the game, missing 11 of her first 12 shots. She finally got going offensively, hitting four shots in a row to help Stanford build its lead.

Stanford was up 68-60 with just over 3 minutes left when

Williams hit a step-back 3 that sealed the victory. She finished with 14 points.

The win moves the Cardinal one step closer to getting coach Tara Van Derveer her first national championship since 1992 and No. 3 overall. Now the Cardinal have reached a 14th Final Four.

The loss potentially ends the stellar collegiate career of All-America guard Dana Evans, who could decide to return next year since the NCAA awarded all players an extra year of eligibility this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The senior guard scored 24 points for Louisville, but got little help on offense.

Louisville had been playing stifling defense. Coming into Tuesday night’s game, the Cardinals were allowing a tournament-low 46 points a game and teams were shooting just 29.5 percent against them. They held Stanford to just 26 points in the first half and led 38-26 thanks to some strong play from Evans, who had 10 points early.