March Madness: Louisville women top Ole Miss 72-62 in Sweet 16

SEATTLE (AP) — Hailey Van Lith put on a show inher home state to get Louisville back to a familiar place — theElite Eight.

Van Lith scored 21 points to help the fifth-seeded Cardinalsbeat No. 8 seed Mississippi 72-62 on Friday night and advance tothe final of the Seattle 4 Region.

“It was amazing to have friends and family in the whole stateout cheering for us,” Van Lith said. “I’m a very focused player,there were no distractions before the game. After the game, Ikissed all the babies and hugged all the people. After business wasdone, I celebrated.”

The Cardinals (26-11) will face second-seed Iowa on Sunday for atrip to the Final Four. The Hawkeyes beat Colorado 87-77, behindthe play of Caitlin Clark.

It’s the fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament that Louisville hasgotten this far, one of the few teams to accomplish the feat.

“It’s hard to continue to get to where we are and win,”Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. “You have to enjoy it. It’s tooshort not to enjoy these types of moments.”

Expectations were high for the Cardinals under Walz to start theseason as the team was ranked seventh in The Associated Press’preseason Top 25 poll. With many new players, the Cardinals lostfour out of six games in late November and early December.

Walz wasn’t concerned. The team started to get more comfortableon the court and made a run to the finals of the ACC Tournament,where they lost to Virginia Tech.

“We’ve been playing well for the last month and a half,” Walzsaid. “We’ll continue to roll and continue to play. We’re going toenjoy this tonight. I’m going to enjoy this. I’m going to the bar.Life’s too short.”

On Friday, the Cardinals were met with a stiff challenge fromupstart Mississippi.

The Rebels (25-9) hadn’t advanced this far since 2007, when theteam made its fifth Elite Eight in program history. They werelooking to become only the second No. 8 seed to reach a regionalfinal, joining Southwest Missouri State, which did it in 1992.

Mississippi’s defense under coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin had beenso good in the first two games of the tournament, keeping bothGonzaga and No. 1 seed Stanford under 50 points in each game.

“The Sweet 16 is the new standard,” McPhee-McCuin said.

Louisville reached that mark by the end of the third quarter onMerissah Russell’s 3-pointer. That gave the Cardinals a 52-42 lead— their biggest of the game to that point. That 3 came shortlyafter Jones’ three-point play extended a 46-40 lead to nine.

The Cardinals played their own stout defense for the second gamein a row. The Cardinals held host Texas to 51 points in the secondround.

Louisville got off to a slow start against Mississippi, but thenVan Lith got them going and the Cardinals led 20-15 after onequarter. After a slow start to the second quarter that saw themgive up the lead, the Cardinals still managed to hold a 34-29advantage at the half.

They couldn’t separate themselves from the Rebels until the endof the quarter.

Ole Miss cut its deficit to 58-53 with 2:32 left before Van Lithhit a shot in the lane to stem the Rebels’ run. After Myah Taylormade the first of two free throws, Olivia Cochran had a three-pointplay with 2:17 left to make it 63-54 and pretty much seal thevictory.

“I didn’t feel like we had control of the game at any point.That’s different for my team,” McPhee-McCuin said. “The lights gotbright. There were a lot of times I didn’t know who I was coaching.When do we give up 20 points in a quarter? That’suncharacteristic.”

Marquesha Davis and Taylor each scored 19 points to lead OleMiss.

HOMETOWN HERO

Around these parts, Van Lith is a household name. She’s thesmall-town standout from 130 miles away who grew into being one ofthe best prep players in the country, the all-time state highschool leader in scoring and now a star for the Cardinals.

Many fans from her hometown of Cashmere that has a population of3,200 took in the game, cheering the Louisville star on. They gaveher a warm ovation during pregame introductions and every time shescored.

TIP-INS

This was the first meeting between the schools. ... This is the19th appearance for the Rebels in the NCAA Tournament, and thefirst time they have earned back-to-back bids to the tournamentsince the 2004 and 2005 seasons. ... Louisville’s bench outscoredMississippi’s 27-6.