U of L women top Virginia, stay perfect in ACC

Don't go printing up those "Undefeated ACC Champs" T-shirts just yet, Jeff Walz said, but after five games the University of Louisville women's basketball team is alone atop what is arguably the best conference in the country.

The Cardinals' 67-55 victory over visiting Virginia on Sunday afternoon - coupled with Duke's 68-53 win over Miami (Fla.) - put them in sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which features six teams ranked in the AP Top 25.

Senior forward Sara Hammond scored a season-high 20 points (16 in the first half) and freshman forward Myisha Hines-Allen added 17 (15 in the second half) to lead fourth-ranked Louisville (17-1, 5-0) to its ninth straight victory in front of 11,322 fans at the KFC Yum! Center.

That's five games down and 11 - including five against ranked foes - to go for the Cards in their inaugural ACC campaign.

"As I've said, I don't see us going undefeated in this league," Walz said afterward. "I'm not trying to be a pessimist, I'm trying to be a realist. I just don't see it; there's too many great teams. So we're going to just have to keep grinding them out, and in order for us to win, that's what we're going to have to do."

Against the Cavaliers (13-5, 3-2), who were picked to finish ninth in the ACC preseason coaches poll but entered Sunday tied for fourth, the Cards did most of their damage inside as they outscored Virginia 52-24 in the paint.

"It's what we've done the entire year," Walz said. "We do a great job of getting into the paint. We're not a great 3-point shooting team and I know that, and we can accept that, but we do a really nice job of penetrating. We work so hard at getting into the middle, jump-stopping and either elevating for a shot or dropping it off to the post, and that's where our bread and butter is going to be."

Virginia jumped out to a 4-1 lead before Hammond started carving up the Cavs. She scored eight straight - all on layups - to give Louisville a lead it never relinquish.

"In the first half Sara did a great job," Walz said. "We knew how they were going to try to defend some ball screens, so we slipped (the screens) a little bit and we got her some good looks."

Hammond scored 16 of her team's first 20 points as UofL's first-half lead peaked at nine (25-16) before Virginia trimmed it to 32-27 at intermission.

In the second half, Hines-Allen picked up where Hammond left off, scoring the Cards' first nine points.

"We came into halftime and I told Myisha, 'They can't stop you; you're really strong,'" Hammond said. "She has multiple moves and I told her to go at them because their posts weren't as fast as ours."

The Cavs, though, kept it close thanks to Faith Randolph. The 5-foot-10 junior guard hit jump shot after jump shot on her way to a game-high 24 points.

"Honestly, it reminded me of Angel (McCoughtry) when she played here," Walz said. "One- (and) two-(dribble) pull-ups, you don't see it very often, especially when you're going full speed and you stop on a dime and go straight up."

Randolph's basket with 11:16 to play pulled Virginia within five (49-44), but that's as close as the Cavs would come. Louisville's defense was the difference down the stretch.

The Cards scored back-to-back baskets off of steals to push their lead back to nine. That slowed down Randolph, who went more than nine minutes between field goals. Still, she finished 11 for 22 from the field, but just 1 of 7 from 3-point range. UofL held Virginia, which came in averaging 9.5 made 3-pointers in its first four ACC games, to 1 of 11 (9.1 percent) shooting from long range.

"That's one thing that we knew coming into the game that we would have to focus on," Walz said. "We really made a point of it to help off of ball-side shooters. So on dribble-drives we were trying to make them finish instead of coming to help and allowing the kick."

Louisville shot 47.5 percent (28 for 59) and committed only five turnovers - which tied a school record - to combat missing all nine of its 3-point attempts and 15 of its 26 free throw tries.

"Overall this was possibly one of the best games we've played this year, except for the free throws," Walz said. "Believe me, we practice them over and over and over. We do everything we can. I appreciate everyone's input on what we should do to change to help them shoot better.

"We're just going to have to keep working and hopefully you'll start to see them dropping."

Louisville next plays at Florida State, which is No. 19 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 20 in the Associated Press Top 25, at 7 p.m. Thursday night.