The Louisville women’s basketball capped its three-game ACC road trip with a rout of Syracuse on Sunday.
The fourth-ranked Cardinals beat Syracuse 100-64 and were led by balance across the board with six players scoring in double figures. Louisville (21-2, 11-1) showed off its ball movement with 23 assists on 41 made field goals as well.
Louisville will now return home to host Virginia on Thursday and will have three days between games, the most in over a week. The Cardinals played four games in the last seven days, sweeping those contests.
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Here’s three takeaways from the road trip:
Cardinals can do it any way
Louisville scored a season-high 100 points on Sunday.
A team known for its defense has evolved offensively, as well. The Cardinals, in the last four games, all played in the last seven days, averaged 84 points per game. That’s an astounding number for a team that is known to as an elite defensive unit, not necessarily be strong on the offensive end.
But this week showed Louisville can win in a variety of ways. Against Miami, on Tuesday, Kianna Smith had to score 21 points and the Cardinals made a fourth-quarter comeback. On Thursday Van Lith had 34 points but on Sunday every play that stepped on the floor scored.
Liz Dixon led the group with 18 points and she hasn’t missed a shot in the last two games. Smith had 16 points, Ahlana Smith had 13, Chelsie Hall and Emily Engstler had 11 points each and Van Lith had 10 points.
Louisville is as balanced of a team you’ll find in the country and it showed this week that its two leading scorers stepped up the first two games and the depth shined on Sunday.
Engstler, in her postgame press conference, said that the team’s depth could be what leads it to a potential Final Four and national championship.
Kianna Smith shows she can do it all
Smith is known as one of the best scorers in the ACC, and the country. She’s shooting xx% from deep, second in the ACC, but this week she showed she’s more than that.
In three games, Smith averaged 16 points but her playmaking was on hand, as well, with 21 assists and just one turnover this week.
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Louisville is a deep team, we’ve talked about it, but when Smith is able to get others involved she makes this team so much more dangerous. She’s an elite shooter teams have to prepare for, but when surrounded by other scorers she can be a lethal offensive weapon.
Liz Dixon continues hot shooting
Louisville’s post play has been stellar this season with the combination of Liz Dixon and Olivia Cochran.
Dixon, this week, gave the Cardinals a huge boost off the bench and stayed hot the entire week. The Georgia Tech transfer went a perfect 8-of-8 from the field on Sunday and 6-of-6 on Thursday. She has made 16-of-17 shots in the last four games.
Cameron Teague Robinson CTeagueRob@gannett.com; Twitter: @cj_teague;
