Roundup: Engstler, Louisville cruise past Michigan

Emily Engstler had 18 points, 14 rebounds, five steals and two blocks to lead the No. 10 Louisville Cardinals to a surprisingly lopsided 70-48 victory over the No. 12 Michigan Wolverines on Thursday night at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.

Kianna Smith (17 points), Mykasa Robinson (eight points, five rebounds, four assists) and Hailey Van Lith (10 points, four steals) all played key roles in the win as well. The Cards (6-1, 0-0 ACC) led 15-9 after one before an impressive second quarter that they won 24-6. Michigan (7-1, 0-0 Big Ten) won the second half by two points.

Louisville held Naz Hillmon (eight rebounds, two steals, two blocks) to 12 points and no other Wolverine could step up and fill the scoring void; Hillmon was averaging 21.8 points per game entering the contest.

The Cards had a significant advantage from beyond the arc (9-of-20 to 2-of-15) and it helped them overcome 11 less free throw attempts than the Wolverines. Louisville won the rebounding battle 39-26 and forced 24 turnovers.

A pair of upsets

Duke Blue Devils (7-0, 0-0 ACC) over No. 9 Iowa Hawkeyes (4-1, 0-0 Big Ten), 79-64

Texas transfer Celeste Taylor put on a performance worthy of a No. 1 star, scoring 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds to help lead the Blue Devils, who built their lead gradually and overcame stellar performances by Caitlin Clark (22 points, nine rebounds, eight assists) and Monika Czinano (21 points, six rebounds).

Freshman Shayeann Day-Wilson also came up huge for Duke with 19 points, four assists and four steals.

The Hawkeyes struggled from beyond the arc, going 3-of-19. Clark was 1-of-13. The Blue Devils won bench points 29-2.

LSU Tigers (6-1, 0-0 SEC) over No. 14 Iowa State Cyclones (7-1, 0-0 Big 12), 69-60

Khayla Pointer was phenomenal with 20 points, six rebounds and seven assists for the Tigers. Alexis Morris paced the team with 25 points and a duo of elite performers was enough to get the job done.

Iowa State was within three until 8:32 to go and within six until 3:43 to go, but a Morris three at the latter mark pushed the LSU lead to nine. Ashley Joens then made two free throws to cut it to seven, but Hannah Gusters, who came to Baton Rouge from Baylor along with Kim Mulkey, capped the game’s scoring with a layup at 2:12 remaining.

LSU won the first by four, the second by two, the third by two and the fourth by one.

Joens dropped 24 points to go along with eight boards in defeat.

The Tigers were an impressive 7-of-10 from downtown and only turned the ball over seven times.