Louisville women's basketball vs Georgia Tech: Live updates, score, highlights
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Louisville’s women’s basketball team has shown steady improvement when it comes to consistency as the season has progressed. Still, head coach Jeff Walz wants more from his team, which has a high upside when clicking.
Walz said this year’s squad has been more of a puzzle than any of his past 15 teams as the Cardinals search for lineups and rotations that can aid in the search for more consistency.
“Like I tell them, I need a few of them to start to separate themselves even more,” Walz said. “Make it more difficult for me to take you out of a game, to put you in a game because right now I've got like four or five that one night it's your night. The next night, it's your night. It's mine. I need more consistency. I need about four of them, where every night I know what that box score sheet is gonna look like.”
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Louisville (11-5, 2-1 ACC) returns home with that goal in mind Thursday against Georgia Tech (9-5, 0-3) at 8 p.m. at the KFC Yum! Center. The one area where the Cardinals have found consistency is their shooting efficiency. They’re shooting at a 47.0% clip from the field, which ranks 18th among NCAA Division I teams, in addition to being ranked 39th in scoring offense with 76.8 points per game and 45th in free-throw shooting percentage at 75.9%.
Junior guard Hailey Van Lith leads the charge with 20.3 points per outing, good for second in the ACC and 18th in the nation. The Washington native, who reached 1,000 career points in a 105-32 win over SIUE on Dec. 6, has scored 20 or more points in nine games this season, including all three of the team’s league contests. That included a 23-point outing in U of L’s 63-56 loss at Duke on Sunday, which ended its six-game winning streak.
“I think the past four or five games that she's really been efficient," Walz said of Van Lith. “She's scoring points but not having to take volume shots, and she's taking good shots. I think she went the first quarter and did not score against Duke. Opportunities didn't present themselves, and then she let the game come to her. I thought she played well, and I thought her teammates did a great job of getting her the ball, which is part of it.”
Van Lith is one of three Cardinals averaging double-digit points. Chrislyn Carr (11.1 points per game) and Morgan Jones (10.1) round out the group with Olivia Cochran (9.4) not too far behind. Cochran has also been efficient on the boards with a team-high 44 offensive rebounds on the year and is averaging a Cardinals-best 7.1 per outing, followed by Van Lith’s 5.5.
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The biggest hindrance to Louisville’s offense being even better, though, is its number of turnovers. The group is averaging 15.9 turnovers per game, ranking 142nd in the country, with a 0.95 assist-to-turnover ratio (103rd). It played the biggest factor in the Cardinals suffering their first ACC loss of the season. The Cards committed 12 turnovers in the first two quarters at Duke and finished with 17 total in the contest. Duke scored 19 points from the turnovers, which led to Louisville's seven-point defeat.
Walz hopes his team can cut down on the turnovers and aims for about 10 or less a night.
“We run in practice if we hit five turnovers in a drill. We're doing everything that we can think of as coaches and we're still trying to come up with more ways to help them, but it's the unforced ones,” Walz said. “It's the throwing the ball out of bounds because you don't make eye contact, or you just reverse it and don't pay attention to where the defense is, and it turns into a pick-six going the other way. Those are the ones we have to get rid of. If we can do that, which we can, then I like where this team has a chance to go because like I said, we've made great strides since Thanksgiving.”
Louisville vs Georgia Tech women's basketball live updates, score, highlights
What time is the Louisville women's basketball vs Georgia Tech game?
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: KFC Yum! Center, Louisville
What TV channel is the Louisville-Georgia Tech game on?
The game will be broadcasted on the ACC Network (DirecTV Stream 610/1610; DirecTV 612; Dish 402; Spectrum 388) with Pam Ward (play-by-play) and Stephanie White (analyst) on the call.
How to stream Louisville women's basketball vs Georgia Tech
Qualified subscribers can stream the game via the ESPN app or online at ESPN.com/watch.
How to listen to Louisville women's basketball vs Georgia Tech
Nick Curran (play-by-play) and Courtnee Walton (analyst) will call the game on the Cardinal Sports Network (WLCL 93.9-FM and WGTK 970-AM in Louisville).
Louisville vs Georgia Tech women's basketball series history
The Cardinals have never lost to the Yellow Jackets, posting a 9-0 record, including a 4-0 mark on their home court. Last year, U of L beat Georgia Tech 50-48 on the road via a last-second layup from Emily Engstler, who totaled 14 points in the contest for the Cardinals. The top-25 matchup also featured seven points and 13 rebounds from Cochran in addition to seven points, four rebounds and three steals from Van Lith.
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 women's basketball vs Georgia Tech: How to watch, stream
