Thursday Cardinal Couple -- Cards find Houston no problem 81-62

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Shoni's 2000th career point highlight of 82-63 win

(Photo by Charlie Springer - UofLCardGame.com)

In what has become a predictable trend, the University of Louisville basketball team struggled with the opponent early in Wednesday night's game, made a late first half run to create some distance and embellished upon that with a run in the second half before allowing the opponent to cut into the lead over the final four minutes.

Houston tonight...but it could have been Temple, SMU, Memphis or several others in the AAC. Houston had a problem tonight and it came in the version of Sara, Shoni and "E". ...in addition to their own cold shooting.

Shoni Schimmel scored the 2000th point of her illustrious career with 18:11 remaining in the second half.

The affable and engaging Howie Lindsey

I set the "over/under" at 18 minutes on when she would reach the total...I took the "under" and LSR/CSR's Howie Lindsey picked the "over" and won the bet. I'm shaving my beard off on St. Patrick's Day. If I had won, Howie was going to challenge Emmonnie Henderson to a 100 yd. dash...

Louisville did lead early...a Sara layup had the Cards up 7-3 with three minutes gone. It stretched out to 13-3 after Sara hit a "plus one" at the 14:33 mark. Houston wasn't going to surrender without a battle, though and used a 12-4 run to make it 17-15 halfway through the half.

The Coogs were still in hot pursuit and had a chance to tie it at 21-21 but Yasmeen Thompson clanged both free throw attempts with 8:05 on the clock. Louisville took off from there...outscoring UH 17-8 the rest of the half. Nita Slaughter contributed five of the points and two Sara jumpers had Louisville leading 38-27 after twenty minutes.

Sara led the Cards with 12 first half points and Shoni added 10. The Cards were a perfect 5-5 from the line and were winning the second chance stat 12-1. Despite 39% shooting and patches of tough to watch three-point shooting (3-13), the Cards looked in control.

And, control was the mission statement of the second half. Louisville steadily added to the lead...a Sara layup gave the Cards a 47-31 advantage four minutes into action. The lead stayed around that mark until UofL pieced together a 11-0 run over a two-minute stretch.

With the score 65-50...beginning at the 6:38 mark on a "E" free throw... an A-Tayy free throw with 4:18 to go made it 76-50 UofL. It was the Cards largest lead of the night. Houston did manage to outscore Louisville 12-5 the rest of the way...Walz using a myriad of combinations on the court...including four minutes for Starr Breedlove.

Sara led Louisville with 17 points, Shoni ended up with 15 and Emmonnie completed the double-figure Cards with 12.

A workable win for Louisville (26-2, 14-1) against the cellar dweller of the conference. This one never in any danger...Shoni the only Card with more than 30 minutes. Walz used every combination available except me in the paint, Worldwide firing threes and Jenny at point.

Houston got a large performance from 6'1" soph. forward Marche' Amerson who led all scorers with 23 points. The Coogs fall to 5-21 and 1-14 in the AAC.

Shoni admitted that she wasn't for sure how many points she needed to reach 2K last night and gave credit to her teammates over the past four years who helped her achieve the goal. Perhaps the most touching post-game comment came from Sara...who said that someday when she becomes a mom and grandmom, she'll be able to tell her kids and their kids that she played with Shoni Schimmel.

Coach Walz's post game comments were mostly directed to her achievement...but declined on ranking her a position in the top five or ten players that he has ever coached....stating that he doesn't rank players in categories like that.

Walz did mention that the team had a lot to work on and he was concerned that they seemed to be making a lot of the same mistakes. Mistakes he and the coaches have worked to correct. He related that he told them they were running out days and games to get better and left it up to them to decide if they were going to come together and achieve what last year's squad achieved.

Coach also commented that a performance like last night's would translate into a loss against Rugters.

That is who is on tap next. The Scarlet Knights come to town Sunday for a pivotal game in determining the AAC standings. Rutgers is on a five game win streak and will be looking for some revenge when they enter the YUM.

Let's hope it's not on the menu...

paulie
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