Louisville wins Michigan for last Final Four spot in women's bracket
With Louisville punching their ticket to Minneapolis, the Cards become the only team at this year’s women bracket Final Four that wasn’t part of last year’s
Following Louisville’s victory past Michigan in the Elite Eight Monday night, with sophomore Hailey Van Lith leading the Cardinals with a game-high 22 points, the women’s Final Four is set.
The top-seeded Cardinals, 29-4, recorded a 62-50 triumph over the No. 3 Wolverines, 25-7, with a high focus on defense throughout the full game.
"We really focus on [defense]," Van Lith said after the game. "Coach preaches it to us. No matter what happens on the offensive end, if it's the worst night of our lives, we can do down on the defensive end and get stops.
"Defense is something we can always control and we've bought into it this year."
Louisville shot 43.1% and forced 22 turnovers while Michigan only shot 34.8% in the loss.
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The women's Final Four in Minneapolis begins this Friday with the same teams we saw last year, excluding Louisville: South Carolina, Connecticut and Stanford, the defending champion.
The Louisville Cardinals will play No. 1 overall seed Gamecocks in the premiere national semifinal, while Stanford’s Cardinals will play UConn in the other.
Louisville coach Jeff Walz told reporters that Monday’s victory “was a great college basketball game. They continued to fight. ... There was never any quit in them. Overall, it was just a great basketball game."