Saturday Cardinal Couple -- Cards face Austin Peay

SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Louisville gets a visit from the Govs

- Radio today

Austin Peay returns to the Ohio River Valley for the second time in a week, this time to meet No. 7 Louisville in a 7 p.m. (ET), Saturday contest at the KFC YUM! Center.

The Lady Govs visit Louisville after suffering back-to-back losses in last week’s action. Austin Peay fell to Middle Tennessee at home, Wednesday, before falling at Xavier, Saturday. APSU suffered through a poor second-half performance in both contests, shooting a combined 31.7 percent while failing to making a three-pointer (0-of-7).

     Junior Kristen Stainback leads the Lady Govs in the two December contests with 18 points, making 8-of-18 (44.4 percent) from the floor. Freshman Beth Rates led the Lady Govs with 13 points off the bench at Xavier and is second on the team with 17 December points on 7-of-10 (70 percent) shooting.

     Head coach Carrie Daniels is in her eighth season with a young squad dominated by sophomores and freshmen. The Lady Govs starting lineup has been composed of a senior, junior and three sophomores in the season’s first seven games with three freshman seeing significant action off the bench.

LADY GOVS LEDGER
Austin Peay brings a two-game losing streak into Saturday’s contest, its first-back-to-back losses this season… Saturday’s contest will be the 12th time – and sixth consecutive season – APSU has faced a nationally-ranked opponent during head coach Carrie Daniels tenure, two of those meetings featuring Louisville… Austin Peay lost to Western Kentucky, the lone common opponent with Louisville, by a 78-75 scoreline on opening day… Sophomore guard Tiasha Gray leads the Lady Govs in scoring (15.8 ppg) and assists (5.6 apg) and her 5.0 rebounds per game ranks second on the team this season… Freshman center Tearra Banks returns to her hometown (played at Ballard HS) and leads APSU’s bench with 7.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.

CARDINALS CALL
Louisville, which joined the newly formed American Athletic Conference during the summer, is off to a 9-1 start this season – the lone loss coming at nationally-ranked Kentucky… The Cardinals own two wins against nationally-ranked opponents (LSU and at Oklahoma)… Louisville defeated Western Kentucky, the lone common opponent with Austin Peay, by a 74-61 margin earlier this season… Senior guard Shoni Schimmel leads the Cardinals in scoring (13.8 ppg) and assists (4.4 apg) while averaging 3.0 three-pointers made per game… The duo of junior forward Sara Hammond (6.8 rpg) and senior forward Asia Taylor (6.6 rpg) form a potent one-two rebounding threat for Louisville. With Nita Slaughter out for the season, Taylor will likely see increased time at the wing position.

Austin Peay has never defeated Louisville in eight attempts and Jeff Walz is 3-0 against the Governors.

Jenny O'Bryan will recap it in the Sunday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE. Due to holiday obligations, Paulie and Sonja will not be in attendance. That should cheer a lot of folks up,

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR TODAY AT 11 A.M. ON CRESCENT HILL RADIO. WE'LL TALK ABOUT THE GAME, THE CONFERENCE AND MUCH MORE!!

RADIO LINK

paulie
...
..
.