Lady Cards face a tough test at DePaul

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TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Cards travel to face DePaul

-Congrats to Bria Smith

The University of Louisville women's basketball team travels to Chicago to face the DePaul Blue Demons women's basketball team Tuesday night at 9:00 p.m. The game will be shown on the CBS College Sports Network. Let's look at the Doug Bruno led Blue Demons...

Anna Martin leads DePaul in
scoring. She's from Lexington.

DePaul (16-6, 4-4) comes into the contest after defeating Seton Hall 71-59 on Saturday. They received a crippling blow when they lost All-Big East performer Keisha Hampton to a knee injury before BIG EAST play got underway. In her absence, 5'9" junior guard Anna Martin (from Lexington Christian) has stepped up as the scoring threat and averages 18.6 ppg for the team. She's one of three active DePaul players that average in double figure scoring.

Brittany Hrynko, a 5'8" freshman point guard chips in 11.0 ppg. and is in charge of getting the DePaul offense in motion. She and Martin are the main three point threats for Bruno's squad. DePaul attempts 24 3-pointers per contest and connects on 8.5 a game.

Jasmine Penny contributes 10.2 points per outing and is a 6'1" soph. forward. She's the second leading rebounder on the Blue Demons team and has picked up her game in the absence of Hampton. Aggressive and always around the hoop, Penny is a solid defender, too.

Katherine Harry is the leading
rebounder for Doug Bruno.

Katherine Harry leads DePaul in rebounding with 8.9 a game and averages 8.0 ppg. She's another one who has picked up her game with Hampton gone. At 6'3", the junior post will give the Lady Cards headaches with her prowess in the paint and full-out style of play on both ends of the court.

Deanna Ortiz is the other usual starter for the Blue Demons. A 5'10" senior guard, her experience and occasional prowess from beyond the trifecta line cannot be ignored. Ortiz rings up 4.0 ppg for DePaul.

Reserves likely to log court minutes are Megan Rogowski and Kelsey Reynolds. Bruno normally doesn't go real deep in his rotation and the top seven mentioned here all see 25+ minutes per game as a rule.

Bruno is in his 28th. year of coaching the Blue Demons. One of the "good guys" in the BIG EAST, he has a dynamic court-side style and is always good for a post-game quote or quip.

DePaul has had some pretty impressive wins this season. They've knocked off Arizona State, St.John's and Georgetown. Their major losses have come at the hands of Tennessee, Providence, USF, UConn and Rutgers. They average 74.0 ppg and allow opponents 65.2. They also have a +3.1 margin of turnovers against opponents...so expect UofL to cough up the pumpkin a few times against the DePaul defensive pressure.

DePaul averages 2861 for their home games...they'll probably have a few more than that in attendance tonight because of the quality of the opponent and rivalry between the two teams. DePaul leads the lifetime series 14-13 over Louisville. Louisville won the last meeting between the two schools 68-55 in the KFC YUM! Center on Feb.23rd. Monique Reid had 28 points in the win and she'll be missed tonight.

Who will step up and provide the inside scoring punch for the Cards? We'll look for Asia Taylor to continue the hot streak she's been on as of late and Cierra Warren could have a big night against the smaller Blue Demons. Shoni Schimmel's wizardry could be very effective tonight and we'll hope for a good shooting night from the "killer bees"...Bria Smith and Becky Burke. This is also a game where Sara Hammond's strength inside might play a pivotal role and we'll watch with interest on how many minutes she logs against the Blue Demons. 

We'll be back later tonight with a full recap. 

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Bria Smith earned BIG EAST Freshman of the Week honors for the second time this season. The Monday announcement broke the two week streak for the award that UConn's Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was riding. Smith has been impressive in Louisville wins over Providence, Georgetown and Villanova in her last three outings and is the third leading scorer at 11.0 a game for the Lady Cards. 

She and Mosqueda-Lewis are the only two BIG EAST freshmen who have won the award multiple times this season. Mosqueda-Lewis has been awarded the honor six times this season.

(We hate to "run up" on consecutive articles here at CARDINAL COUPLE..so if you missed Jenny's report on the Manual vs. Marion County game and her analysis of future Lady Cards Makayla Epps and Kyvin Goodin-Rogers, be sure to give it a read...)
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