WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
- Shoni's 26 leads five double figure scorers in rout of Iowa
The Iowa Hawkeyes were trying to stand in the way of Louisville's return to play in the regionals of the NCAA Womens' basketball tournament in the KFC YUM! Center.
Bad idea.
The Cards dot another "I" (the first one Idaho on Sunday) and return to Louisville after a 83-53 defeat of Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena Tuesday night. Iowa did keep it close for the first six minutes and the Cards faced a 11-11 tie from an inspired Hawkeye squad.
It did not last.
The Cards took a 28-17 lead after a Tia Gibbs putback with 5:42 on the clock and extended that to 33-19 at the four minute TV timeout. A 7-4 closing run had Louisville up 40-23 at halftime.
Shoni had 12 of her game high 26 points at that point and Nita Slaughter had 8 points...with two threes to her stat line. Three Cards (Tia, Asia Taylor and Jude Schimmel) had six points each and the rout was on.
The Cards were shooting 64% in the first half. Iowa 31%.
Louisville went on a 21-8 spree over the first eight minutes of the second half to take a 30 point lead...61-31...with twelve minutes to go in the game. The Cards were shooting, rebounding and playing defense well. And without their starting posts in the game.With Sara and Asia on the bench watching...saddled with fouls...the Hawkeyes had a height advantage.
Much like the loud and rowdy Iowa fan base in the stands...the Hawkeye team wouldn't let it die. Hard fouls and wild threes that didn't hit the mark plagued the final minutes. The Hawkeye coach finally emptied the bench. It was time.
You play to the final buzzer...sure...and it hurts to lose at home...but Iowa was a beaten team when A-Tayy nailed a jumper to complete a 9-2 Louisville blitz in the first three minutes of the final half to go up 49-25.Sam Logic and Distel-whatever may be local legends in Iowa City. The truth is...they are mediocre basketball players on a run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-pack Big 10 team. They could not stop the beatdown that Louisville administered.
Strictly business.
Shoni led all scorers with 26. Nita Slaughter added 17...five threes in the mix against the ponderously slow Iowa perimeter. Tia Gibbs finished with 12 points. Jude and Asia with 10 points each. Starr Breedlove scored in mop-up minutes to extend her games scored-in streak to two. She's quick and has a nice free-throw motion. Watch out for this girl next season.
How many times has Louisville won by 30 and Sara Hammond not scored?
Another successful stop on the Unfinished Business trip. Louisville gets a LSU squad on Sunday that they beat earlier in the season.
C'mon home, ladies. Another appearance in the Sweet Sixteen ahead. In the KFC YUM! Center. Sunday hoops with great weather ahead. Go buy tickets, Card fans. And Iowa...for what it's worth...went one game further in the NCAA Tournament than their cross-state rivals Iowa State.
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Louisville's Shoni Schimmel and Sara Hammond were named to the WBCA All-Region I team, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced Tuesday. The selection committee will select the 10-member WBCA Division I Coaches' All-America Team from 52 candidates
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Sixteen teams remain. Breaking them down by conference gives us five from the SEC (Tennessee, LSU, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Kentucky). Louisville's future conference...the ACC...has three schools representing (Notre Dame, North Carolina and Maryland). The AAC still has the two that were selected for the Big Dance alive in UConn and Louisville. The Big 12? Baylor and Oklahoma State. DePaul represents the Big East (way to go Doug Bruno!) The WAC has surprising #12 seed BYU still dancing. Penn State is the lone Big 10 survivor. Stanford is the sole PAC school .By seeding? All four #1 seeds are alive. Only two of the #2 seeds advanced (take that NCAA...WVU and Duke are gone).
All four #3 seeds will play this weekend. Two of the #4 seeds (Maryland and North Carolina) fight on. #5 seed Oklahoma St. heads to the South Bend regional. Two #7 seeds...DePaul and LSU...join the party and #12 BYU completes the team-by-seed breakdown.
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How's the CARDINAL COUPLE Pick 'Em contest going? I'm glad you asked! Here's the standings thru the first two rounds:
Paulie 40-8
Joe H 39-9
Blue Lou 38-10
Charlyse
Curtis Franklin
Willie Cat Fan 37-11
Gary W 36-12
Kenny S 35-13
Sonja
David Watson 34-14
Vivian
Worldwide Jeff
Jennifer B 31-17
Cardinal Chimp 30-18
Matt M for Gov 25-23
The Other One 24-24
paulie
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Paulie? Where's my totals?
ReplyDeleteThanks
the real Joe Hill
OOPS! Sorry Joe. Did these before I went to work this morning. Late night. Will add yours later after I get home.
DeletePaulie
Out here in Portland, ESPN has been leading with Schimmel teasers but then quickly switching over to other games. Completely unacceptable. Plane tix bought. See ya'll on Sunday.
ReplyDelete--PDX Phil
C'mon in, PDX. UofL is announcing slightly over 6,000 tickets sold so far. $15 bucks at the box office window. Lower level seats available.
DeletePaulie
Great win and momentum coming home. I've gotta say that even though we handed it to Iowa they have a great basketball tradition and were pretty gracious in defeat. They aren't a run of the mill Big 10 program. They have a really good team that had a good season with only one senior on the squad. They just ran into us on a night that everything was clicking. No point in poor mouthing them.
ReplyDeleteAs they say "sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you". The bear ate Iowa last night. The basketball gods are smiling on our Cards right now. Here's to four more games of the same.
Here's the deal. They were popping off to the media that they had plans for a net-cutting down ceremony after the second round game for the Iowa team.. NET CUTTING? FOR A REGIONAL...Yes, I can understand that. For a second round game...really? After every hard foul that a Iowa player committed, they all wore the same smirk. If you're down by 38 points and the team beating you has emptied the bench...you should follow suit.
DeleteThey may have a great basketball tradition. This current bunch doesn't impress me too much, BurnBrother. They play in a league that gets a ton of hype each preseason about how great they are and yada...yada. Look at the Final Four teams over the last few years. How many Big 10 powers have made the national semifinals and final game in WBB. Not impressed with the Hawkeyes or the BIG 10. Will give you this...the BIG 10 has excellent volleyball and softball.
Here's to four more games of the same for UofL!
Paulie
Paulie
Paulie, I'm with you on this one.
DeleteI'm not arguing they have a great team but they shot over 57% and drained 12 threes in beating a good Marist team by 22 a few days ago on the same court so their irrational exuberance about beating the Cards didn't totally come out of left field.
DeleteI am saying the 30 point beat down should speak for itself.
In any case it's history now. Hopefully Shoni & Nita stay hot and Jude has another last second bank shot trey in her hip pocket if we need it this weekend.
Why leave exhausted starters out there for more embarrasment until one minute remains? Coach Bruder should have gone to the bench earlier. I am a Iowa and Iowa State fan and although I disagree about our girls intent to purposely enjoy fouling Cardinal players I will say that Louisville is by far the best team my Hawkeyes had to face this year and I'll be pulling for your Cardinals to win it all.
DeleteCarol from Fairfield