CARDINALS

Cards' comeback comes up short against DePaul

Jonathan Lintner
@JonathanLintner

Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz presented his team two options heading into Sunday: Play better defense and move on to the Sweet 16, or pack up this season and start immediately working for the next.

Louisville's Briahanna Jackson cuts past DePaul's Ashton Millender to score to tie the game, 72-72. March 20, 2016.

The No. 3 seed Cardinals received the message too late in the going to salvage their NCAA tournament run, falling 73-72 to No. 6 DePaul in a Round of 32 game at the KFC Yum! Center.

The Blue Demons hit just two shots from the 8:36 mark on, committed a pair of shot clock violations and blew a 10-point lead in the process. While U of L rallied to tie, the Cardinals never led, ultimately done in by a pair of late whistles.

"We had two opportunities in the last minute of the game there to get the lead and couldn't get it done," said coach Jeff Walz.

'50-50 call' dooms U of L in DePaul defeat

A foul on Briahanna Jackson, defending an inbound pass with 14.5 seconds to play, led to a go-ahead free throw by DePaul junior Jessica January. At the other end, officials called Myisha Hines-Allen for a charge on her drive for a potential game-winning bucket.

January went for a game-high 25 points, consistently creating off the dribble in front of a raucous 7,515 fans. And so it's on to the Dallas Regional for her and the Blue Demons, who will next play the winner of Sunday's late game between Oregon State and St. Bonaventure.

U of L was left wondering what could have been after a run of 16 wins in 17 games to finish the regular season, good for second place in the Atlantic Coast Conference and All-American honors for Hines-Allen.

"I thought January played extremely well," Walz said. "I thought she was the difference in the ball game, especially in the first half. She's the one that really put pressure on us, and she made some tough shots."

The Cardinals, old league rivals with the Blue Demons, were familiar with their efficient offense. They just couldn't stop it. Despite the fourth quarter drought, DePaul shot 47 percent, always there to answer U of L's scoring spurts.

"I can't say enough about our entire team," said Blue Demons coach Doug Bruno. "I go back to our schedule also. This was a murderer's row schedule, but there's nowhere we've been this year that had the hostility of the crowd today."

DePaul played three eventual No. 1 seeds -- UConn, Notre Dame and Baylor -- during its non-conference slate, preparing for a moment like Sunday.

Consecutive 3-pointers by Briahanna Jackson early in the third quarter pulled the Cardinals to within a possession. Senior Chanise Jenkins then scored 5 straight points for her team.

Another flurry capped by a Jackson jumper dropped U of L's deficit again down to a single possession. That time, DePaul answered on a 6-0 run to end the third quarter.

"We just had to buckle down," Hines-Allen said. "We knew it was going to come down to stops on defense."

"I think it was just relaxing and knowing that if we just get stops, we can get back in the game," added her fellow sophomore forward, Mariya Moore.

To counter one, final charge by the Cardinals, January hit 1 of 2 shots from the line as Jackson fouled out, walking to the bench to a chorus of boos from the home crowd.

A Central Florida transfer, the redshirt junior guard Jackson hit the 20-point plateau for the first time since December to lead U of L, with 16 in the second half. Freshman Asia Durr finished with 16, while Hines-Allen and Moore scored 14 apiece.

"It was a game of runs," Walz said. "It was a game when they came up with some big rebounds. They came up with big stops. They did what you have to do, and unfortunately we weren't able to get over that hump."