by GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) – Mariya Moore scored 17 points, but No. 7 Florida State beat No. 10 Louisville 66-51 on Saturday in an Atlantic Coast Conference semifinal.
Jude Schimmel added 9 Points, a game-high 4 steals along with 3 assists for third seed Louisville (25-6).
Ivey Slaughter scored 17 points, Maegan Conwright and Shakayla Thomas each had 12 points for the second-seeded Seminoles (29-3).
Florida State will play No. 2 Notre Dame (30-2) on Sunday in the final.
After pulling to 45-43, the Cardinals were held to one basket during the next 6 1/2 minutes while Florida State pulled back away.
”You climb all the way back and get it to a 2-point game,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. ”You expend so much energy to get back to that point that you have a breakdown.”
The Seminoles’ 17-4 run was keyed by two 3-pointers from Conwright – including one with just under 4 minutes left – that put the Seminoles back up by double figures.
”The guts – it was like she had ice water in her veins,” Florida State coach Sue Semrau said. ”I thought it changed all the momentum.”
That sent the Seminoles to their first semifinal victory in four tries and brought them even with the 2009-10 team that set the school record with 29 wins before reaching the NCAA regional semifinals.
FSU earned their first ACC championship game berth and matched the program record for wins after building a 24-point lead, then holding off the Cardinals’ relentless rally.
They earned a rematch with the Fighting Irish, who won the only meeting this season 74-68 on Jan. 2 in South Bend.
For a while it looked like they might get there without a test.
Florida State used an early 20-2 run to take what seemed like a comfortable lead, taking its largest lead at 33-9 on a free throw from Slaughter with 5:34 left.
But the Cardinals chipped away at that huge deficit, pulling within two points on Moore’s 3 with just over 9 minutes left before going cold.
”If you show up at all to start it off,” Walz said, ”it’s probably a different outcome.”
The Cardinals were denied their sixth win over a Top 25 opponent this season. The highest-ranked team they’ve beaten is No. 15 North Carolina, and that came in a quarterfinal Friday night that ended about 16 hours before this game tipped off.
Both of the Seminoles’ wins over Louisville contained overwhelming early runs. They started the last meeting with a 21-1 spurt and went on to claim a 68-63 victory on Jan. 22.
Louisville awaits at-large berth into NCAA Tournament.
