Kianna Smith shines as Louisville beats Miami on the road, now tied for 1st place in ACC

The Louisville women's basketball team began its three-game road trip with a nail-biter against Miami.

The fourth-ranked Cardinals defeated Miami 69-66 and overcame a 9-point deficit with 6:13 left to play. Louisville was led by senior Kianna Smith who had 21 points and seven assists and got a big contribution from Olivia Cochran, who had 18 points and five rebounds.

Louisville (19-2, 9-1) trailed by two points with 56 seconds left before a Chelsie Hall 3-pointer gave it the lead. The Cardinals outscored Miami 7-3 in the final minute.

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With the win, Louisville moves back into a first-place tie with NC State after the Wolfpack lost at Notre Dame by three points.

Louisville's road trip continues, though. The Cardinals will not return to Louisville; instead they will head right to Clemson for their game on Thursday night.

Kianna Smith shines

Smith has been one of Louisville's go-to players this season, and she kept the Cardinals in the game for the first half. She had 15 of Louisville's 35 first-half points.

She finished with 21 points, but also had a team-high seven assists to go with her scoring output.

The senior from California came up big for Louisville each time they needed her. In fact, she hit two free throws in the final seconds to give Louisville the three-point lead.

After struggling in the previous three games, shooting 9-of-34, she showed up in a big way on Tuesday for the Cardinals.

Big plays at the right moment

Louisville was in the danger zone down nine points with 6:13 left to play, and it wasn't as if everything changed and Louisville went on a massive run.

The Cardinals made timely plays at the right moments to take the win.

Emily Engstler, who shot just 2-of-10 from the field, hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to six points with 5:53 and then forced a steal seconds later that helped cut the lead to five.

Hall's three that gave Louisville the lead in the final minute came after she chased down an offensive rebound and then got the ball back from Van Lith.

Then there was Robinson's steal in the final 20 seconds of the game that set up Smith's free throws.

Louisville didn't play great on Tuesday, but it made the right plays at the right time to edge out the Hurricanes.

"You really have to guard everybody. You can’t say, ‘She can’t shoot a 3,'" coach Jeff Walz said. "I’m just really impressed with how we gutted some things out. ... Really pleased with how we finished this game tonight."

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Bad turnovers nearly cost Louisville

Now that we've covered the good, here's the bad. Louisville had 15 turnovers on Tuesday. They only led to 18 Miami points, many were dead ball turnovers, but they took possessions from the Cardinals when they needed them.

Although Miami played good defense for much of the game, Louisville was shaken more by its own mental mistakes, not the Hurricanes pressure.

Louisville turns the ball over 14 times per game, so the 15 isn't an astounding number, but in a close game like Tuesday one more could've made the difference.

Cameron Teague Robinson CTeagueRob@gannett.com; Twitter: @cj_teague;

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville women's basketball, led by Kianna Smith, holds off Miami