It was a tense game that came down to the last missed shot by Alabama’s Crimson Tide, but the Louisville women’s basketball team punched its ticket to the Sweet 16 with a nail biting 69-68 win over Alabama at the Yum Center.

Here’s a taste of the post-game celebration:

The Cards seemed to be clinging onto a lead for most of the game, partly because their three-point (7 for 26) and free-throw shooting (8 for 16) was atrocious. But key baskets fell when they had to and came from leading scorers Elif Istanbulluoglu (18 points), Tajianna Roberts (18) and Laura Ziegler (12 points). Ziegler (with whom I exchanged a “high-five” after the game) and Reyna Scott, both seniors, made their final appearance on the Yum Center court and lingered in the arena amid the fan applause after the game to celebrate their successful bid to be in the Sweet 16 round next weekend in Fort Worth.

Their next opponent is 2-seed Michigan, which trounced NC State the day before, and that’s something to worry about, because Louisville had to go into overtime this season to win against the Wolfpack.

In our last podcast, we pointed out how the local “newspaper” put together a full March Madness section the Sunday before the men’s and women’s tournaments began and made no (I mean zero) mention of the women’s teams, even though the women have a better record, are a top seed and entertain a loyal fan base. The CJ tried to make up for it this past weekend with a few stories on the Cardinal women, with features on coach Jeff Walz and exchange student Ziegler, but as far as we’re concerned, the damage had already been done.

And I will point out they extensively quote associate head coach Stephanie Norman in the Walz story without ever saying she left the team this year to help lead basketball operations at Arizona State. I’ll also note the CJ made a reference to the UK men’s team without mentioning that the Wildcat women were also in the tournament.

As of right now, the UofL and the UK men’s teams are out. The Louisville women are still in, and the Kentucky women are leading in a nail biter against West Virginia.

The photo at the top of this post says it all.