Bullying the Bulls...Cards head to Sweet Sixteen -- Tuesday Cardinal Couple

Women's Basketball vs USF

--CARDS 60 - USF 52--

UofL got off to a quick start in the round of 32 game against USF, a very familiar opponent, to say the least.  With a 12-2 run to start the game, it started to look like this game might not be all that competitive.  That's not a good bet to make when your opponent is a Jose Fernandez coached team, though.  And sure enough, a couple of what-were-you-thinking passes by Mariya Moore and some tight officiating by the Dee Kantner led crew, and USF was back into the game down just two, 16-14 at the under-12 timeout.  

Coming out of the timeout, USF got another bucket to tie the game up at 16, and set up a defensive battle for the ages.  Approximately four minutes later, at the under-8 timeout, the score had barely advanced, with The Cards having gotten the only score of the stretch for an 18-16 lead.

A collision between USF's star guard Courtney Williams and another Bull sent Williams and Bria Smith to the floor, with Bria landing on top of Williams leg.  Williams came up limping and concern started to set in for the Bulls.  The Bulls guard continued to play and with the exception of some grimacing and occasional hint of a limp, seemed no worse for wear.

UofL finally got some offense going again, and in what may be the highlight of the season, Shawnta' Dyer drained her first-ever-attempted 3-point shot taking UofL to 24-19 at the under-4 timeout.

At the half, The Cards were hanging on to a 28-23 lead.  At the half, Bria Smith had been credited with two steals, but it seemed like more, Mariya Moore also had two steals on the stat sheet, but quietly.

Starting the second half, Sara Hammond finally got on the scoresheet, then stripped USF and fed a nice passing in to Myisha Hines-Allen to swing the momentum to Louisville.  That triggered a USF timeout with the scoreboard showing 34-26.

USF started a stretch where they were reeling UofL back in with a bit of a curious call.  After Jesperson committed an over-the-back foul on Mariya Moore, the flailing Moore made contact with Jesperson as Moore went to the ground.  The over-the-back was called, and a huddle at the monitors resulted in a dead-ball technical being issued to Moore.  I'm a little mystified as to how that was a technical foul.  I could have understood a flagrant 1 as there was arguably contact by Moore's elbow to Jesperson's face, but a technical seems a bit over-the-top to me.

After the technical, USF made a bit of a run with a few calls that could've gone either way going in favor of the Bulls, but UofL didn't let it fluster them.  UofL continued to dominate the offensive glass giving them two, three, and sometimes even four attempts at getting shots.

With Bria on the bench with four fouls, Sara also collected her fourth and took some time on the sidelines.  With a cold shooting stretch by Louisville, USF was finally able to fully reel in The Cards at the under-4 timeout and take their first lead of the game at 47-46.

The Cards did not quit, however.  Louisville kept calm and continued to play their game, confident that some shots would start falling, and they did.  UofL started to pull back out to a small lead, but it wasn't comfortable until Jude sank some clutch free throws with under a minute left to put The Cards up 7.

With the foul-to-stop-the-clock game on in full force, Mariya Moore pulled down a rebound, was fouled, and landed awkwardly on her left knee perhaps, based on my armchair remote diagnosis, slightly hyperextending it.  In a gutsy display, Moore walked up to the free throw line and sank both of her free throws to put the game away for sure.

The Cards advance in a predictably tough game against USF to the Albany regional Saturday night to face Dayton after their upset over UK. Game time is set for approx. 2 p.m.

Kelsi Jones Gets ACC Nod

Kelsi Jones, in her fourth conference in four years, just got the ACC Player of the Week nod.  In a busy week of six games where The Cards went 5-1, Jones had a home run and a double, scored 9 runs, and got 6 RBIs.  She also picked up three stolen bases and was walked eight times, three of which were intentional.

On a barely related topic, on the @CardCoupleRadio twitter account this week, I explored the phenomenon of some Softball teams wearing hair bows while others don't.  Louisville has traditionally been a very non-hair-bow-wearing team.  Kelsi shook up the status quo last season by being the first UofL player that I'm aware of to wear a hair-bow while playing.

Hair bows: the hard hitting sports journalism you've come to expect from Cardinal Couple.

In all seriousness, though, Kelsi Jones has had a fantastic couple of weeks of Softball, helping Louisville sit atop the leaderboard in the ACC conference standings and is well deserving of ACC Player of the Week honors.

Lacrosse Rankings

There are times when I think I have some of these sport rankings polls figured out, and then we have situations like the last couple of weeks in Lacrosse that leave me scratching my head.

Last week, after a week of two loses to Boston College and Duke...Louisville Lacrosse moved up two spots in the IWLCA (Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association) coaches poll.  To be fair, the loses were very competitive, with the loss to BC being only by a single point in overtime, and the Duke game being a loss by only two points.  BC is 2nd, and Duke is 6th in the IWLCA poll, so apparently there was recognition that playing so competitively against two very good teams was worthy of a bump.

In the meantime, the Cardinals win against a couple of good, but unranked teams this week in Vanderbilt and Virginia Tech, and the reward?  Still sitting in 10th place.

I guess there are just some things that I'll never really understand.

CARDINAL COUPLE PICK 'EM CONTEST

Hard to believe, but 48 of the 63 games in this year's NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament have been played. The leaderboard for our contestants: 

40-8 Curtis Franklin. A previous winner of this event, CF has surged to a narrow lead over the field.

39-9 Charlie MC, Blue Lou and Kenny S. stand waiting in the wings...ready to pounce

38-10 Two CARDINAL COUPLE staffers...Jeff MC and Sonja are two games back...along with K. Starks.

We're in the stretch, headed for home. Who will hit the wire first? 



jmca