Louisville women's basketball overcomes slow start, earns 6th straight win ahead of UConn

When Louisville’s shots weren’t falling and Morehead State was winning the rebounding battle, the 17th-ranked Cardinals relied on their defense.

Eventually, the other parts of their game caught up, and the team put away the Eagles, 74-48, on Wednesday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center.

The Cardinals (10-1) will carry a six-game winning streak into Saturday’s game against UConn. U of L has defeated UConn three times in 21 meetings and recorded its first road victory over the Huskies on Dec. 19, 2021, when the Cardinals won, 69-64, in a top-5 matchup. Olivia Cochran scored eight points and had eight rebounds in that contest and will try to help the team to another win two years later.

"It was a tough game," Cochran said, "so I'm definitely excited for another top-20 matchup."

Saturday's meeting with the Huskies is the kind of game that James Madison transfer guard Kiki Jefferson referred to as a wakeup call. That wakeup call began when she noticed that teams played the Cardinals differently and hit more shots against them during the Van Chancellor Classic. Louisville won the tournament but not before the team suffered its first — and currently only — loss of the season to Alabama.

Suddenly, the intensity level that U of L coach Jeff Walz brings at practices began to make more sense.

"He's like, 'I want practice to be as hard or harder than a game just so that the game is easier,'" said Jefferson, who scored 12 points Wednesday afternoon. "I think Houston definitely opened up my eyes, but I've always heard it from my first workout ... (that) this is a different type of basketball over here, and I can agree."

Morehead State also gave Louisville its best shot, which resulted in a slow start. The Cardinals struggled offensively at the outset, shooting 26.7% from the field. Cochran, who finished with a double-double (16 points, 11 rebounds), scored six of the team’s first 16 points. She and Nyla Harris dominated in the post, combining equally for 24 points to go along with 11 rebounds. Harris contributed 16 points and nine rebounds.

"We just came out flat," Cochran said of the team's start. "Our coach got on our butts, and we had to make that adjustment because we know what we have to do. We know what this game was (and) how it was supposed to be. We didn't come out there and dominate how we were supposed to."

Defensively, Cochran and Harris helped the Cardinals force Morehead State into 13 first-half turnovers, playing to the team’s strength. Louisville entered Wednesday averaging 22.4 forced turnovers per game (16th nationally) and outscored the Eagles, 25-8, in the second quarter.

Morehead State came out in the second half and tried its hand at 3-point shooting. Five of the Eagles’ first seven shots were from long distance, but the team didn’t have much luck. They shot 22% from 3-point range, and Louisville grabbed seven defensive rebounds. The Cardinals outrebounded Morehead State, 47-39.

Despite the Cardinals holding the Eagles to their second-lowest point total of the season, Walz thinks his team needs to get better defensively. With finals over and the university heading into its holiday break, the Cardinals will have more time to get in the gym and improve.

"If you just look at overall season stats, I think teams are shooting 40% from the field on us," he said. "I think it's the first year that I've been here that, through Christmas, we have opponents shooting 40-plus percent from the field, so that's something that we've got to get fixed in a hurry. We'll obviously address that tomorrow and Friday and continue to address it throughout the year."

More: Koron Davis' time with Louisville basketball comes to end. Guard dismissed from team

Reach Louisville football, women's basketball and baseball beat writer Alexis Cubit at acubit@gannett.com and follow her on X at @Alexis_Cubit.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville WBB: Olivia Cochran leads win vs Morehead State