Louisville women's basketball bounces back in dominant fashion win over SIUE

Louisville’s women’s basketball team needed to bounce back.

For the first time since 2016, the Cardinals lost back-to-back non-conference games, knocking them out of the latest Associated Press poll.

The squad took the task seriously enough to set a new record for most points scored in a half (62) while Hailey Van Lith cleared 1,000 career points in the 105-32 beatdown victory over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville on Tuesday night at the KFC Yum! Center. The junior ended with a game-high 21 points and sits at 1,004 in her career, becoming the 32nd player in program history to reach 1,000 points. Jazmine Jones (2016-20) was the most recent Cardinal to clear the mark and ended with 1,239 points.

"You don't just sit at home going I hope I become a good shooter. Hope's not a very good strategy for success," Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. "She's (Van Lith) put the work in. She puts the work in every single day. She's done it her entire life. ... This does not surprise me tonight, just because of the drive that she has."

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Cardinals guard Morgan Jones nearly had a double-double after the first two quarters with 11 points and six steals as the team’s early igniting force. She ended with 17 points, eight steals, four assists and three rebounds. The group was also down two players in guards Mykasa Robinson, who was out in concussion protocol, and Norika Konno, who was under the weather with a non-COVID illness.

"That's one of the things, you get the opportunity to play a game like this where we can work on ourselves, not just are you going to win the game," Walz said. "So, I was proud of them because I thought we did some really good things at the offensive end. I thought we were very unselfish. I think we took really good shots and we got each other shots and that's what we're gonna have to continue to do as the year goes on."

Louisville (6-4) is scheduled to hit the road for a rivalry game against Kentucky at 1 p.m. Sunday at Rupp Arena in Lexington.

Here are three takeaways from the victory:

Back to defensive form

Much to SIUE’s dismay, Louisville's trademark defense made its return Tuesday and made life for the Cougars miserable. Within the first minute, Jones made the Cougars pay for a bad pass with a steal. She was fouled on the shot attempt and only made one free throw, giving U of L the early 3-0 lead. The trend continued with Jones pocketing five steals in the first 10 minutes and using that to score 11 points in the team’s 33-8 first-quarter lead.

The Cardinals’ aggressive defense produced 34 points off 19 turnovers to go along with three blocks after the first half. It also caused the Cougars to only shoot 23.5% from the floor on the night and a season-low 32 points.

"It has to carry over when we play tougher teams, but I think that this is a starting point to show that we know what to do and obviously, we still have to improve on things," Jones said. "But, tonight showed that we're more than capable of this. ... We can be a really good team but we just have to be disciplined and apply everything we're learning."

Record-setting half

In addition to the 34 points created by Louisville’s defense, the team set a record for most points in a half with 62. The team shot 67.6% from the field and 71.4% from beyond the arc, including three 3-pointers from Chrislyn Carr, who finished with 14 points. The graduate transfer drained two 3-pointers in less than two minutes to give Louisville a 45-8 lead at the 7:03 mark of the second quarter. Louisville outscored SIUE 29-3 in the second quarter as part of a first half where Van Lith and Jones combined for 23 points.

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A glimpse at the future

With SIUE’s fate long decided before the game ended, Louisville had the opportunity to get its freshmen more time on the court. Nyla Harris has been a consistent part of the team’s rotation but Tuesday evening’s contest allowed Zyanna Walker and Jalyn Brown to log more minutes. The extra bodies were needed with Payton Verhulst transferring out and Robinson in concussion protocol.

Walker made her debut with the program earlier in the week, playing 16 minutes in the Cardinals’ 67-49 loss at Middle Tennessee State while Brown played against IUPUI and Ohio State but only played 10 minutes in the two contests. Both freshmen logged double-digit minutes against SIUE and were two of 10 Cardinals to score in the game.

Walker ended the game with six points in 18 minutes played while Brown contributed three points and two steals in 10 minutes on the court.

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Van Lith, Louisville women's basketball trounce SIUE in dominating win