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Alexa FilippoESPN
Louisville girls’s basketball coach Jeff Walz took the blame Friday after the Cardinals noticed their large late lead evaporate on their method to struggling a surprising 61-59 loss to No. 7 seed Miami within the quarterfinals of the ACC event in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Main by 15 factors with solely 5:44 left, Louisville had a 99.9% probability of profitable the sport, in keeping with ESPN’s Basketball Energy Index (BPI), however Miami edged out the No. 2 ranked Cardinals by 17-0 within the last 5 minutes. To finish her offended profession. The Future Harden Hurricanes sealed the win with a turning bounce on the bell.
“I’ll take the blame for that,” Walz mentioned after Louisville’s semi-final loss for the primary time since becoming a member of the ACC in 2015. You most likely assume you are going to play a event, three matches hopefully in three days, and we have misplaced all our rhythm offensively. Then we took some actual dangerous hits, did not defend, and did not guard. No matter we wanted to do to allow them to get again within the sport, we did.
“I will not blame these youngsters. It is my fault…As a coach I discovered a beneficial lesson there right this moment.”
Louisville (25-4) was one of many prime 4 within the third and last NCAA girls’s basketball rankings, revealed Monday, together with Stanford, South Carolina and North Carolina State. Nevertheless it may drop by one streak if Baylor goes deep within the Large 12 this week in Kansas Metropolis, in keeping with ESPN’s arch skilled Charlie Cream.
The sport was additionally the tenth time this season {that a} group misplaced after getting into the fourth quarter by no less than 14 factors, and Louisville is the one group that has been on the dropping finish of many of those video games, in keeping with ESPN statistics and data. The Cardinals beforehand misplaced to NC State 68-59 in mid-January after they allowed Wolfpack to erase their 16-point lead and outsmart them 31-8 for fourth.
“Sadly for our group we’ve not fairly discovered but and since I do not care in regards to the rating, the primary possession of the match is simply as vital because the final possession of the match,” Walz mentioned. “It is a laborious lesson to study, however one which I hope we are able to study from and make some fast changes as a result of you could have an excellent week and a half now to take a seat on this. And if this does not sit in your guts and piss you off, I do not know what to do for them.”
Goalkeeper Keanna Smith shared her coach’s frustration with letting one other large lead slip away.
“That was horrible,” she mentioned. “There isn’t any doubt about it. That is the second time this has occurred to us this yr, and now we have to study from it and make adjustments.”
The Cardinals went 0-for-5 from the sphere and made 5 turns within the final 5 minutes of the sport. Louisville had two key gamers, Hailey Van Leyth and Olivia Cochran, as Miami made their comeback with lower than 5 years to play. 4 of Wales’ 5 beginning gamers returned after Miami minimize the distinction to eight by 3:25 to play, though Van Leith stayed on for many of the last three minutes.
“It sucked,” Walz mentioned. “I had some dangerous make-up exterior, and that form of threw all the pieces proper.” “We didn’t talk.”
Harden scored 15 out of 27 within the Hurricanes sequence of 17 missed factors to push the Hurricanes, considered one of Karim’s “final 4 bye” groups, to victory.
“Protected to say we’re out of the bubble?” Miami coach Katie Meyer mentioned. “I actually nonetheless know,” I used to be on the lookout for a ebook to seek out out what occurred. Did Future combat 14-0 by herself? Is that right? fifteenth? Attractive.”
