No. 4 Louisville Closes Regular Season at No. 14 Notre Dame on Sunday

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – No. 4 University of Louisville women's basketball closes the regular season at No. 14 Notre Dame on Sunday afternoon. The game will tip off at 12 p.m. ET and broadcast on ESPN2 and 790-AM WKRD.

Louisville is 24-3 on the season and 15-2 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

At 15-2 in ACC play, UofL has secured a 2-seed in the ACC Tournament. With a win at Notre Dame and a NC State loss at Virginia Tech, UofL would share the ACC regular season title with the Wolfpack and be the 2-seed. The Cardinals are seeking their fifth straight ACC regular season title. Prior to this stretch, Louisville had never won consecutive regular season conference titles.

Emily Engstler recorded her ninth double-double of the season with 17 points and a season-high tying 15 rebounds in Thursday's win at Pitt. She had 19 points and 15 rebounds the game prior against Virginia Tech. She is the first Louisville player with 15 or more rebounds in back-to-back games since Myisha Hines Allen had 18 rebounds at Pitt on Jan. 18, 2018 and 15 vs. Florida State on Jan. 21, 2018.

Her nine double-doubles rank fourth in the ACC and are the most by a UofL player since Kylee Shook had 11 during the 2019-20 campaign. She leads the ACC with 2.5 steals per game, ranks third with 6.6 defensive rebounds per game and 9.1 rebounds per game and ranks fifth with 1.8 blocks per game. She has led UofL in rebounds in 24 of 27 games.

Hailey Van Lith leads the team in scoring with 13.6 points per game and has led the team in scoring 10 times. Over the last six games, she is averaging a team-high 18.3 points per game. She has made at least one 3-pointer in 12 of last 14 games.

In ACC Play, she ranks seventh in the league with 15.1 points per game, while shooting 45.1 percent from the floor, which ranks fifth.

Louisville is limiting opponents to just 54.5 points per game, which ranks second in the ACC and 17th in the country. It's on pace to be the fewest points allowed per game in program history. The program record is 56.4 points per game allowed in 2019-20.

UofL is forcing 19.4 turnovers over game, which ranks second in the ACC and 32nd in the country. The Cardinals have forced double digit turnovers every game this season and 12 times have forced more than 20 turnovers.

ABOUT THE FIGHTING IRISH

Notre Dame enters Sunday's matchup with a 21-6 overall record, 13-4 in conference play. They are 13-0 at Purcell Pavilion, including 8-0 in ACC home games. The Fighting Irish average 74.1 points per game, which ranks second in the league, while giving up 62.4 points per game, which ranks ninth. Notre Dame leads the ACC and ranks 10th in the NCAA with 17.7 assists per game and leads the league and ranks ninth in the country with 5.6 blocks per game. They commit just 12.9 fouls per game, which is the fewest in the ACC and 11th fewest in the country. The Irish feature five scorers averaging more than 9.7 points per game - Olivia Miles (13.8 ppg), Maya Dodson (12.8 ppg), Sonia Citron (11.7 ppg), Maddy Westbeld (11.5 ppg) and Dara Mabrey (9.7 ppg). Miles leads the ACC and ranks fourth in the NCAA with 7.1 assists per game and her 1.9 steals per game rank fourth in the league. Dodson leads the league with 2.8 blocks per game and ranks fifth with 8.0 rebounds per game. Mabrey is shooting 35.4 percent from deep and connects on 2.1 3-pointers per game, which rank fifth and seventh in the league, respectively.

Series History - Louisville is 11-16 all-time against Notre Dame. The Cardinals are on a five-game winning streak and have won seven out of the last nine in the series. UofL's scoring margin during the five-game winning streak is +22.6. Louisville is 4-6 all-time in South Bend and has won two straight. Last year, on Feb. 28, 2021 at Purcell Pavilion, Louisville won 78-61 to clinch its fourth straight ACC title.

Last Meeting (Feb. 13, 2022) - Kianna Smith scored 17 points, Hailey Van Lith added 16 and No. 3 Louisville outscored No. 18 Notre Dame 29-6 over parts of the middle two quarters for a 73-47 rout. Chelsie Hall's six consecutive points keyed Louisville's 11-0 spurt coming out of the break and eventual 18-4 run that broke the game open at 52-25. The Cardinals easily maintained a 20-point cushion to earn their fifth straight win and seventh of the last nine meetings against Notre Dame. Hall finished with 13 points, while Emily Engstler had nine with 12 rebounds for Louisville, which dominated the boards 50-32.

GAME FACTS
Date: Sunday, Feb. 27
Time: 12 p.m. ET
Site: South Bend, Ind. | Purcell Pavilion (12,508)
TV: ESPN2 (Tiffany Greene, play-by-play; Steffi Sorenson, analyst)
Radio: 790-AM WKRD (Nick Curran, play-by-play; Adrienne Johnson, analyst)
Last Meeting: W, 73-47 (Feb. 13, 2022 at KFC Yum! Center)
Series History: 11-16 (W5, 5-5 Home, 4-6 Away, 2-5 Neutral)
Next UofL Game: ACC Tournament

For the latest on Louisville women's basketball, visit GoCards.com, follow the team's Twitter account at @UofLWBB or on Facebook at facebook.com/UofLWBB.

No. 4 Louisville Closes Regular Season at No. 14 Notre Dame on Sunday

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Players Mentioned

Emily Engstler

Chelsie Hall

Kianna Smith

Hailey Van Lith

University of Louisville Athletics