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Durr scores 29, No. 4 Louisville women top No. 22 Florida St
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Asia Durr bounced back from her worst game of the season with one of her best.
Durr scored 29 points as No. 4 Louisville jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in a 68-49 win over No. 22 Florida State on Thursday night.
"Asia Durr is an All-American," Florida State coach Sue Semrau said. "We saw why tonight. We had our kids going out and contesting the way they contested everybody all year. And we needed to go out further."
Durr shot 10 of 16 from the floor, knocking down four 3-pointers, to lead the Cardinals (18-1, 6-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) to their fourth straight victory. She also grabbed seven rebounds.
The senior guard had her 49th career 20-point game five days after scoring only eight in a win over Wake Forest.
"She just seemed to have a little more bounce in her step," Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. "She didn't shoot it great (at Wake Forest) but when two were coming at her, she would get it to the open person. Tonight I saw that bounce back in her step. Made some big shots for us. I was excited for her to get into the groove of shooting the 3 again."
The Cardinals were in rhythm from the opening tip.
Louisville used an 18-2 run to jump out to a 20-6 lead after the first quarter. The Cardinals led 32-23 at halftime and by double figures throughout the second half.
Florida State pulled off wins over top-10 Louisville teams in 2018 and '17 but didn't come close on Thursday.
Kiah Gillespie had 13 points and six rebounds for Florida State (16-3, 4-2). Nicki Ekhomu added 11 points.
"We battled," Semrau said. "We're young. We knew that we would need to use this opportunity to grow. I had four freshmen and a sophomore in toward the end of the game. I'm just excited about them. We don't have to go out and beat the fourth-ranked team in the country this year. We need to go and take care of what we need to take care of."
Kylee Shook grabbed nine rebounds for Louisville, which had a 37-25 edge on the boards. The 6-foot-4 Shook also had eight points and five blocks.
Sam Fuehring added 11 points for the Cardinals.
Louisville shot 55.6 percent (25 of 45) from the floor and 45.5 percent (5 of 11) from 3-point range.
Florida State shot 32.1 percent (18 of 56) from the floor and just 16.7 percent (3 of 18) from beyond the 3-point arc.
JAZ-ZED TO RETURN HOME
Louisville junior guard Jazmine Jones grew up in Tallahassee and played high school basketball at Florida A&M Developmental Research School, just two miles from the Florida State campus. Jones, a five-star prospect who picked Louisville over Florida State and other schools, had requests from 35 family members and friends to watch her play.
"It's just awesome," Jones said. "We got the win. That's most important thing. Finally."
POLL IMPLICATIONS
It's hard to picture Louisville moving up any higher than fourth but the Cardinals, whose only loss is to No. 1 Notre Dame, have shown they are one of the nation's top teams. Florida State had won 12 of 13 going into Thursday and can argue it's worthy of remaining in the Top 25.
BIG PICTURE
Louisville: The Cardinals recorded their 14th win by 10 or more points. Louisville was ninth in the nation with a 20.3-point scoring margin coming into the game.
Florida State: The Seminoles trailed by double digits most of the way and weren't able to defeat Louisville for a third straight season.
UP NEXT
Louisville hosts Pittsburgh on Sunday.
Florida State plays at Virginia Tech on Sunday.
