CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDINAL COUPLE
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Friday, February 1, 2019

Cards Shock Country-- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Women's Basketball Makes Statement with Win over UConn


The country was probably shocked when they witnessed Louisville Women's Basketball defeat Connecticut, 78-69 last night in the KFC YUM! Center.  Four players scored in double-figures  for the Cards, led by Asia Durr's 24 points.

Durr showed everyone why she truly is the BEST player in the country.

17,023 fans packed into the KFC Yum! Center for the event, the largest of the season for the Cards and also the largest of the season for all of women's basketball.  The record for the largest crowd at a UofL women's basketball home game is 22,163 vs UConn back in 2014.

Sam Fuehring and Jazmine Jones each recorded a double-double with Sam going for 10 points and 12 rebounds and Jaz went for 13 and 12.

Jaz also dished out four assists to tie Dana Evans for a team-high.  Evans also tallied 20 points including 5-10 shooting from deep.  Overall, Louisville had 13 assists and limited their turnovers to four.



How many losses does UConn have?


Durr went scoreless in the first quarter, but Louisville still went toe-to-toe with the Huskies, tied 21-21.  UConn's 3-5 from three-point range kept their offense going while the Cards spread the wealth among five scorers.  Louisville's six fouls and UConn's five would total to be the most combined (11) of any quarter until late fourth quarter.

Things were evenly matched in the second quarter, but Louisville won it, 19-17, to hold a two-point halftime lead.  Nite-Nite began to heat up.  She scored 14 points, going 4-6 from deep and 5-9 from the field overall.  Surprisingly, neither time committed a turnover in the period.

Louisville still held the lead, and was winning the rebounding battle. 20 minutes remained. Cardinal fans were as energized as the frisbee-chasing dogs performing at halftime.

The third quarter is where momentum shifted into the favor of the Cards.  They won the quarter, 18-13.  Asia added another seven points to her total, but it was the defense that showed its strength.  UConn was forced to go deep into the shot clock every possession knocking them out of rhythm.

The fourth quarter was another higher-scoring quarter with Louisville winning it, 20-18.  Between Louisville shooting a high number of free throws down the stretch and the Huskies knocking down a pair of threes near midcourt both teams found life on offense.  UConn got a bucket 13 seconds in the fourth quarter but then went silent for almost five full minutes, pushing Louisville's lead to double-figures.

The Huskies were nailing shots late in the fourth, but so were the Cards. No losing the lead late here. The overall shooting numbers were not spectacular (38% U Conn -  UofL 39.7%). Dana gets our "star of the game" nod. 20 points, four assists, zero turnovers.


This was Louisville's night to shine with a nationwide audience checking in and the roar of the KFC YUM! Center will long be a fantastic memory for me, Paulie, Sonya, Daryl Foust and all of the over 17,000 who were in attendance.

The Cards still have plenty of work to do, of course. A dangerous Clemson team awaits them Saturday in Littlejohn Arena. NC State remains perfect. Syracuse is coming in soon and they are always a "tough out" for UofL

Not a lot of time to celebrate this historic win but, oh, what a night down by the river here in Louisville !


F-R-E-D Report


Paulie says...."Nite-Nite"
Free Throws: Louisville looked great for a while before having a rough stretch in the final minute where there were a lot of 1-2 trips to the line.  Still, the Cards went 17-24 for 70.8%.  There was also an offensive rebound in there so the percentage can go up for that.  Capital "F".

Rebounds: Add another game to the list of games where Louisville won the rebounding battle.  The out-rebounded UConn 46-40.  More importantly, the 35 defensive rebounds helped keep the Huskies from pulling in offensive rebounds for second chance points.  With both Jaz and Sam with 10+ rebounds I'm sold on a capital "R".

Effort/Efficiency: 25-63 (.397) from the field isn't great but 11-29 (.379) from three is pretty solid.  What really catches my eye here is the 13 assists on 25 made shots opposed to only five turnovers.  In terms of effort I'll quote Geno Auriemma "They deserve it.  They worked their asses off tonight."  Capital "E".

Defense: Okay, so UofL didn't hold an opponent under 50 points.  UConn scored 69 points, which is still about 13 less than average.  The Huskies were held in the teens three quarters.  UConn had zero fast break points and only 11 second chance points.  The Huskies looked out of whack for most of the game due to Louisville's pressure.  To finish the perfect score we see a capital "D".

When one plays UConn and wins, things must go right so a perfect score of F-R-E-D isn't all too surprising.

I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that this is a game we soon won't forget and will talk about many years down the road.  It was a privilege to cover the game as media.

Louisville improves to 20-1 on the year should move back up to #2.  UConn falls to to 18-2 for their multi-loss regular season since 2013.  Jeff Walz is now 1-17 against UConn while in control of the reins at Louisville.

The Cards travel to Clemson this Saturday (not Sunday) to play at 2:00 p.m.


Caption These

You can catch videos of post-game below.

In these two pictures, one of Jazz celebrating and Walz looking like he's about to break into dance, it was a time for smiling, dancing and letting their feelings loose.

The Cards met the dragon and slayed the dragon .

Jeff Walz post game presser


                                                          Asia Durr and Dana Evans


                                                               Geno Auriemma



Happy Friday and Go Cards!

(PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON AND POST-GAME COVERAGE BY SETH SPALDING) 

- Jared -

19 comments:

  1. Country may be shocked, but I'm not. Saw it coming.

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  2. Man, what a night! Dancing in the aisles with people I didn't know. High fiving a girl so hard I almost knocked her down. Full of so much emotion, admiration and pride at the end.

    Yes, I believe.

    Walking out and hearing a little girl tell her Dad that she wants to be like Asia Durr.

    It was Louisville WBB's finest hour. Card nation, you rule!

    I can't think of much more to say. I came, I saw, I got crazy and I had a big time.

    Curtis "I am UofL." Franklin

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  3. I called for a 81-79 Cardinal win and wasn't too far off. I was not surprised, but oh, so, pleasantly pleased over this win.

    A team win. A Cardinal team who knew they needed to score points, protect the ball and limit UConn runs. Can't say enough about this effort.

    Winning three quarters and winning the hearts of 17,000 that were there and countless others who watched on TV.

    We are. UofL. Do you believe? I believe !! L - YES !!

    Paulie

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    Replies
    1. Great call Paulie. I was surprised and wrong again! Shocker. Neither team is as good as they were last year but UConn after losing all that defense with Nurse Gabby and Azura Stevens were brought down several pegs. What a win.

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  4. This was an incredible game to watch on television and I can only imagine what it was like "being there live". I hit one of my favorite "establishments" down here in Naples. there was a pretty large group of other Cardinal "snowbirds" there watching and Deloris and I had a great deal of fun, food and drink with another couple that we successfully turned into WCB fans.

    Durr. Evans. Fuehring. dunham. Carter. And Jazzie! She gets my MVP, guys and gals. Jazzie just moves so effortlessly. Has poise and emotion. They knew last night they needed a board presence. Jazz (along with Sam. Don't forget Sam) said "I will be that board presence."

    Yes, I believe Paulie. I believe that Louisville will be in Tampa and I'll be there.

    -- The Real Joe Hill --

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  5. ESPN would not let us watch because we were not physically in the states. Worldwide and I watched vicariously through Twitter. We managed to draw in a few of our traveling partners. We are thrilled. Glad my older son, Jeff’s brother, Brian and his daughter, Grace used our tickets and cheered for us.

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  6. Pac 12 is insanely competitive fun close games every year. Good to see ACC becoming more watchable though I don't think Syracuse, Miami, Fl State, NC or GT are that good right now. What's good is they can be by the end of the year. Remember Cards trampling Syracuse on the road 3 years ago and Syracuse comes out of nowhere and beats the Cards on the way to the championship game. ACC is overrated but any of these teams may get better.

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  7. Paulie, have you noticed the competitive scores starting to happen more in the ACC games this year? Last night alone -
    NC 91 GT 90
    BC 92 Duke 90(Double OT)
    Fl St 62-58 over Miami
    Syr 72-68 over VA
    NC St 59-50 over WF

    Only 2 blowouts out of 6 games. ACC used to be a snooze and uncompetitive. One year Cards had a 15-1 ACC record and the closest game was a 9 point win over Fl St. The rest were double digit wipe outs. Good to see closer games.

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    Replies
    1. Absolutely! The ACC has more parity than I have ever seen. I think the top are ND, Cards and NC State, naturally, but FSU is a very good squad and North Carolina very dangerous.

      Paulie

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  8. Hello Cardinal Fans and Friends!

    Marvelous job in beating the Huskies ! We were at the Clemson vs. Notre Dame game and will review that in a minute. We started getting reports on the game in Louisville and there was a bit of a buzz going on in our section as the updates continued to roll in. I've been watching "best of's" and clips all morning. Wonderful job Louisville !!

    As for our Tigers. We were done in by rough first and third quarters. Clemson was able to cut the ND lead to 10 at half but ND just stepped on the gas again and we were down by 30 or so at the end of the third. Mabrey and Arike were just too much for us. Collier looked pretty good for us but we were soundly defeated. Giving up an 18-0 run at the start was fateful.

    We got about 3,000 by my estimate for the game yesterday. Not what I hoped for but still a decent crowd for us in WBB. Sadly, they were taken out of it early and never really got engaged.

    I hope I can find a replay of it somewhere, this Cardinal win. Looking forward to you coming down here tomorrow. YOu guys Saturday and the men bring in Wake Forest Sunday, then Super Bowl later. It's a great watching weekend

    Your friend
    #1 Clemson Fan
    Arthur
    Greer, SC

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    Replies
    1. Hope your not saving your best for the Cards Saturday. That will be a very interesting game which is nice to say when playing Clemson. Your coach is obviously doing a tremendous job. Looking forward to seeing Clemson at BC matchup this year. I'm pretty sure Clemson will be favored.

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  9. Now that's how you rebound! That's how ALL your capable D1 athletes score! That's how you run on all cylinders! All 5 links playing as a team... Asia is fantastic but not without her teammates. Each girl to me played fantastic...As I have said in previous post all the great teams UCONN and Notre Dame etc have had multiple players scoring all the girls can have a hot night and be depended on! Now you girls looked like a fine tuned machine! Job well done keep it up!

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  10. Good win over UCONN so proud of the team, a big shout out to Bionca Dunham she made her foul shots.PS POST PLAYER COMING ALONG.

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    Replies
    1. Good win depite a off shoting nite from AC cupid Carter.

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    2. it was a tough night of shooting for AC those happen but her defense assists and floor leadership was straight on this girl is my favorite wbb player she battles does not back down and i believe will be in the wnba after the cards win the national championship

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    3. Wouldn't trade our duo of Arica and Dana for any other pg duos in the nation.
      Watching Arica's progress over 4 playing years, yes, she will, imo, be a capable, solid, dependable pg, and have a long career in the WNBA.

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    4. AC Is also one of my favorite players. I hopes she make the WNBA.


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  11. As much as I like AC it's IMHO I don't see her in the WNBA. I would be shocked actually.

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