DALLAS – Antonita Slaughter had two 3-pointers in a go-ahead 11-0 run for No. 5 Louisville early in the second half, and the Cardinals stretched their winning streak to 11 games with an 81-66 win at SMU on Sunday.
The slow-starting Cardinals (18-1, 6-0 American Athletic) went ahead to stay by scoring the 11 consecutive points in a span of only 79 seconds.
Slaughter finished with 17 points and four 3s, her first made shots from behind the arc in her four games since missing six games with a blood clot in her lungs. The senior guard had five 3-pointers in the second game this season, and twice in her career had seven in a game.
Tia Gibbs had 20 points to lead five Cardinals in double-figure scoring. Louisville beat SMU for the second time in three weeks, having won the AAC opener at home 71-51 on Dec. 29.
Keena Mays, the AAC's leading scorer with 19.5 points a game, led the Mustangs (11-7, 2-5) with 20 points. Korina Baker had 14 and Kiara Perry had 12.
Slaughter started the game-turning run with a 3 off an inbound pass from Shoni Schimmel, then Asia Taylor had a steal. That led to a layup by Sara Hammond, who then drew a charge to give the ball back to the Cardinals, and Slaughter made another 3-pointer. Schimmel's 3-pointer with 17:23 left stretched the lead to 44-37.
Schimmel had 12 points, while Taylor had 11. Hammond had 10 points and 12 rebounds, while Bria Smith had seven points, eight rebounds and nine assists.
Louisville scored the game's first four points, on Schimmel's inbound bounce pass to Taylor for a layup before two free throws by Slaughter. But the Cardinals missed six of their first seven shots and fell behind early.
The Cardinals shot 56 percent (15 of 27) after halftime, when they outscored SMU 48-31.
SMU led 32-24 when Korina Baker hit a 3-pointer with just over 5½ minutes left in the first half.
Gibbs then scored seven points in a 9-1 run for Louisville, and got even at 33 on her baseline jumper with 1:37 left in the half.
Gibbs started that run with a jumper and then after a steal by Schimmel on a turnover by Baker, Gibbs hit a 3-pointer. Schimmel made two free throws with 1:54 left before Mays had a turnover with an offensive foul near midcourt and set up Gibbs' tying shot.
The Mustangs regained the lead before halftime on Perry's putback basket of her own miss.
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