Louisville women's basketball falls to No. 10 Notre Dame in down-to-the-wire OT thriller

It’s still February, but Louisville’s Thursday night women’s basketball game at No. 10 Notre Dame felt like March Madness. With seeding implications on the line, the Cardinals and Fighting Irish were tied at 70 to end regulation, forcing overtime.

That, too, ended up going down to the wire with Fighting Irish guard Olivia Miles knocking down an off-balanced, buzzer-beating shot to lead Notre Dame over Louisville 78-76.

With Miles' shot, the Cardinals’ four-game winning streak came to an end as did their six-game winning streak over Notre Dame.

"I just thought it was a great basketball game between two really good teams," U of L coach Jeff Walz said. "As I said on the radio, I congratulated (Notre Dame women's basketball coach Niele Ivey) after the game: they played great, and I said that more importantly, I think it was a great game for women's basketball on ESPN. We're always fighting to try to get people to watch games outside of just our circle, and I thought if anybody just turned that game on, it was an entertaining game that went back and forth and was just great to watch."

Louisville now has five ACC losses for the first time since joining the league in 2013, virtually ending its chances of winning the ACC regular-season title for the fourth time in five years.

Picking up wins at this time of year is of great importance for this year’s Cardinals. Three of the past four seasons the program clearly separated itself from the rest of the ACC pack during the regular season, with no more than two losses in conference play.

This season, every team in the league has lost at least two games. And the ACC regular-season title is still very much up for grabs.

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Thursday was a pivotal step toward determining the top four seeds for the ACC tournament next month. Virginia Tech and Louisville (19-9, 10-5 ACC), tied for third place heading into Thursday, played the top two teams in Duke and Notre Dame (21-4, 12-3), respectively. The Hokies beat the Blue Devils 61-45, giving them sole possession of third place, while the Fighting Irish’s win put them in a first-place tie with Duke. The Cards are now tied with Florida State, in fourth place.

Despite the loss, Walz said "there's no question" his team took a step in the right direction with only three games left in the regular season.

The Cardinals saw more production from their reserve post players with Josie Williams providing the team with four points in the final two minutes of the first half and Liz Dixon totaling six points, four rebounds and two blocks.

The continued issue they have to figure out, though, is turnovers. They committed 17 on the night.

"We had nine (turnovers) at half, so had 14 going into the fourth quarter. I said, 'Guys, if we can keep this thing to two or three turnovers, we're gonna have a great chance to win this game,'" Walz said. "Well, we only turn it over three times and that includes overtime. I'm like, 'Guys, if we can do that in a 10-minute stretch, three turnovers, why can't we do it in the first half? Because that's our Achilles heel right now.'“

The nail-biting contest featured 14 ties and 13 lead changes. But the Cardinals went into the fourth quarter on top 53-51. Determined to end its losing streak against Louisville, Notre Dame outscored U of L 19-17 in the final quarter of regulation to force an extra five minutes of play.

Hailey Van Lith had the Cardinals’ game-tying shot in the fourth quarter and scored 19 points while going 8 for 16 from the field on the night. Chrislyn Carr added 15 points off the bench.

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Louisville will have a second chance at Notre Dame, though. The two squads face off again Feb. 26 at the KFC Yum! Center to end the regular season.

“It's not going to be something where you're going to have to go back and say, 'OK, remember when they did this?’” Walz said prior to Thursday's game. “It's going to be clear in 10 days of knowing what worked, what didn't work, what we have to work on and what we have to continue to try and do.”

Before the two teams meet again, Louisville will face Boston College on the road at noon Sunday and host Miami at 6 p.m. on Feb. 23.

"I told them this is the game to me that's going to show a lot about us," Walz said of the trip to Boston College, "because we have to come with the same intensity and the same fight as we did today. If we do that, then we can take care of things up there and then we come back home for two. But, you can't look past that and think, 'Oh, it's gonna be an easy win,' because it's not. So, we'll see."

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: Louisville vs Notre Dame women's basketball: Cards fall in OT thriller