NCAA Women's Basketball Championship Final Four Game Notes
April 05, 2009 | Women's Basketball
April 5, 2009
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Raleigh Regional Champions; Ranked No. 7 by Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN
Record: 34-4, 14-2 BIG EAST (2nd); At-Large Bid, No. 3 seed
NCAA Tournament Results: First Round def No. 14-seed Liberty, 62-42; Second Round def No. 6-seed LSU, 62-52; Regional Semifinal def No. 2-seed Baylor, 56-39; Regional Final def. No. 1-seed Maryland, 77-60; National Semifinal def No. 1-seed Oklahoma, 61-59
Louisville NCAA Notes:
• The 14-point comeback was the fifth-largest deficit overcome in a national semifinal game and the first time a team rallied from a double-digit deficit since April 1, 2007, when Tennessee overcame a 12-point hole, 48-36 with 8:18 remaining in the game against North Carolina; it's the largest comeback since the 2005 national semifinal games, when both games featured rallies (Michigan State trailed Tennessee, 47-31 (16 points), with 16:03 remaining in the game; Baylor trailed 24-9 (15-points) with 7:42 remaining in the first half)
• Louisville becomes the 24th different team to advance to the national championship game (Rutgers in 2007 was the last team to do so)
• There have been two No. 3 seeded teams that have won the NCAA title (1994-North Carolina and 1997-Tennessee)
• The last time a team won the NCAA title in its Final Four debut was Baylor in 2005, which defeated another first-timer Michigan State, 84-62, in the final
• The No. 3 seed owns a 7-4 record in national semifinal games and a 2-4 record in championship games
• Louisville is just the second team from Kentucky to advance to the Final Four since Western Kentucky in 1992. The Hilltoppers also advance in 1985 and 1986, with only the 1992 team reaching the national title game (lost to Stanford, 78-62)
• Louisville is the 35th different team to earn a spot in the Final Four; seven different teams won the NCAA title in their Final Four debut (Louisiana Tech-1982, Southern California-1983, Texas-1986, Stanford-1990, Texas Tech-1993, North Carolina-1994, Baylor-2005)
Louisville Team Notes:
• After trailing 16-2 to start the game, Louisville outscored Oklahoma 59-43 the remainder of the way
• Louisville held Oklahoma without a field goal for the first 7:03 of the second half (A. Paris ended the 0-for-7 spell), as the Cardinals mounted a 20-4 run out of the locker room, capped by Deseree' Byrd's 3-pointer with 12:35, giving Louisville a 42-38, its largest lead of the game to that point
• Sunday's 34-22 halftime deficit was just the fourth time this season Louisville had trailed after the first 20 minutes of play; the Cardinals had a record of 1-2 entering the game after trailing at halftime (defeated Xavier after trailing 28-24; lost to UConn after trailing 45-32; lost to UConn in BIG EAST Championship game after trailing 50-24)
• Louisville's 34 wins are the most in program history (record was 27 wins in 2006-07 season)
• Sunday's game marked the first-ever meeting between Louisville and Oklahoma
• Louisville improves to 8-1 this season when wearing RED uniforms
• Louisville enters the national championship game having won 13 of its last 14 games, with the only loss coming to UConn, 75-36, in the BIG EAST championship game
• Louisville's bench outscored Oklahoma's 22-2 in the game, including 15-0 in the second half
Louisville Individual Notes:
• Including Sunday's result, head coach Jeff Walz owns a 7-1 record in NCAA Tournament games
• Angel McCoughtry is averaging 20.2 points (101 total) and 10.0 rebounds (50 total) through five NCAA Tournament games in 2009
• McCoughtry, who led the country in steals this season, collected five in Sunday's game, increasing her season total to 161 and her career total to 478
• McCoughtry was held scoreless until hitting two free throws with 3:54 remaining in the first half; she did not convert a field goal until nailing a long jumper from the left side of the floor at the 16:24 mark of the second half, after missing her first seven shots from the field; she hit 6-of-10 shots in the second half
• Sophomore Keshia Hines tied her career-high with 10 rebounds, while scoring nine points - just missing her second career double-double
• McCoughtry's 18 point-11 rebound effort was her 17th double-double of the year
• McCoughtry is the nation's active scoring leader with 2,756 points through Sunday's 18-point game, just ahead of Oklahoma's Courtney Paris, who finished her career with 2,731 points
• McCoughtry is Louisville's all-time leader scorer in men's or women's history, just passing Darrell Griffith's 2,333 point total; Nell Knox held the Cardinal's women's record with 1,899 points
• Jeff Walz is the first coach in their second year as a head coach to guide a team to the Final Four since Pokey Chatman led LSU in 2005
• McCoughtry was named the Raleigh Regional Most Outstanding Performer
• Sophomore Deseree' Byrd was named ESPN's Player of the Game in Louisville's Sweet 16 win over Baylor
