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University of Louisville Athletics

Tuesday, March 30
SAN ANTONIO, Texas
9 p.m. ET

University of Louisville

63
vs
78

Stanford

Dana Evans Louisville Women's Basketball

Evans Scores 24, but Louisville Falls to Stanford in Elite Eight

March 31, 2021 | Women's Basketball

Dana Evans led the Cardinals with 24 points on 6-8 shooting from 3-point range.

SAN ANTONIO – Dana Evans finished with a game-high 24 points, but Louisville (26-4) couldn't hang on to a 14-point second half lead and fell 78-63 to top overall seed Stanford (29-2) in the NCAA Elite Eight on Tuesday night.

"It just -- it's a tough way to go out," said head coach Jeff Walz. "There's no question about it because our goal was to get to a Final Four, and unfortunately for us, we just fell one ball game short. Actually, one half short."

Louisville had been playing stifling defense the entire tournament. Coming into Tuesday night's game, the Cardinals were allowing a tournament-low 46 points a game and teams were shooting just 29.5% against them.

They held Stanford to just 26 points in the first half and led 38-26 thanks to some strong play from Evans, who had 10 points early.

Louisville led 43-29 midway through the third quarter, but Stanford had a stretch where they scored 13 consecutive points to take its first lead since early in the game. The teams traded baskets the rest of the period and the Cardinals were up 50-48 heading into the final quarter.

But, Stanford scored the first 10 points of the fourth to go up 58-50. That run was capped by Kiana Williams' 3-pointer. The San Antonio native had a rough start to the game, missing 11 of her first 12 shots, but she hit four shots in a row to help Stanford build its lead.

Stanford was up 68-60 with just over 3 minutes left when Williams hit a step-back 3 that sealed the victory. She finished with 14 points.

Lexie Hull scored 21 points for the Cardinal, while Ashten Prechtel came on in the second half and added 16 points on 6-6 shooting, 3-3 from deep, in just 15 minutes of action.

''What a great substitution that (Prechtel) was. She changed the entire game,'' Walz said. ''Her 15 minutes, she's plus-27 on the plus-and-minus side. She won the game for them. ...She was remarkable there in the second half.''

Evans was named to the Alamo Region All-Tournament Team after finishing with 24 points on 9-20 shooting from the floor and 6-8 from 3-point range. She is the only player in UofL history to win four regular season conference championships and she has the best winning percentage and fewest losses of any player in program history.

"Dana's worked her tail off in the four years that she's been with us," Walz said. "She came in the gym every single day and stayed late, got in there early, and continued to get better and better and better. It's just a tribute to her for her work ethic and her desire to want to continue to get better."

Mykasa Robinson finished with seven points and eight rebounds, while Kianna Smith had eight points and seven rebounds.

Louisville shot 52 percent from the floor and 6-10 from long range in the first half, while limiting Stanford to 28 percent shooting and 1-9 from deep, to build its first half lead. But, the Cardinal shot 63 percent and scored 52 points in the second half, the most points allowed in the second half by Louisville all season.

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.