3rd Time Isn't The Charm - Tuesday Cardinal Couple

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

UConn Takes The AAC Title

Well, its not really a surprising outcome, with the UConn Huskies downing The Cards 72-52.  What may be the biggest surprise of the game was to hear even UConn alumna Rebecca Lobo taking the officiating to task for not calling fouls on UConn.  22-3 was the number of foul shots taken by UConn and Louisville respectively.  While admittedly UConn plays in a very disciplined and clean way, the disparity was noticeable.

That having been said, foul shots weren't going to change the outcome of this game.  Unlike their previous meeting last week, UofL did manage to control the boards, block out and get some rebounds...some of the time.  Unfortunately, the boards weren't consistent and UConn was able to take advantage of the times when Louisville wasn't rebounding well to get 2nd and 3rd chance points.  Stephanie Dolson and Breanna Stewart were particularly effective at cleaning the glass with 16 and 9 rebounds, respectively.  UConn outrebounded UofL 47 to 37.

Louisville only shot 30.3%, but UConn only shot 42.4%.  If there's a particularly bright spot, its that
Louisville was perfect from the charity stripe...although with only three attempts, that may not have been enough to be statistically significant.

Shoni Schimmel finally shook off the Huskies Blues by scoring 20 points, although not many other players on the team were able to hit their full potential.  Nita Slaughter went scoreless, Asia Taylor only got seven.  Tia Gibbs and Jude Schimmel both connected for six, while Sara Hammond tallied five.  Bria Smith gets four points in only 16 minutes of play that was clearly shortened by continued knee pain.

UofL will now wait to see what the people that matter think about whether we should be the 4th #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.  The NCAA will announce the field on Monday the 17th at 7pm.  Louisville will host an event, as they did last year, at the KFC Yum! Center.  This event was a lot of fun last year, so make plans to attend.

Softball Defeated by Illinois State

In a game rescheduled from Saturday, The Illinois State Redbirds beat UofL out at Ulmer Stadium 5-2.  Freshman Maryssa Becker pitched most of the game, with Rachel LeCoq coming in to pitch for a disastrous third of an inning in the 5th, allowing three of ISUs five runs before Becker returned to the circle to finish out the game.

Louisville's two scores in the game came in the third inning with Katie Keller, who had been in a bit of a hitting slump coming into this weekend's games continues to roar back with a single.  Whitney Arion followed with a double, scoring Keller.  Maryssa Becker with a single gets Arion home.

The Cards had runners in scoring position in the last three innings of the game, but, as has seemed to be the case often this year, couldn't finish it out and get the runs.

UofL and Illinois State continue Spring Break play with a game at 1pm today.

jeffmca
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