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| Photo by GoCards |
Louisville women's basketball opened up the season yesterday in an untraditional way. The Cards traveled all the way to Paris, France to participate in the Aflac Oui-Play, a doubleheader that featured #3 USC vs #20 Ole Miss and #5 UCLA vs #17 Louisville. USC survived the first game 68-63. The Cards fell to the higher-ranked Bruins 66-59.
For Louisville, the question of the starting lineup has been answered... for now. Olivia Cochran, Nyla Harris, Mackenly Randolph, Taj Roberts, and Ja'Leah Williams took the court for the start of the game. Jayda Curry did not play due to injury....a hamstring suffered about a week ago.
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| Photo by GoCards |
1st Quarter: Louisville 18, UCLA 13
We had a weird start to the game as UCLA was late in turning in their lineup and was given a technical foul. The Cards led 1-0 before the tip-off started. They then pushed the lead to 6-0 with a quick spurt following a three by Cochran and a fastbreak layup by Randolph. UCLA settled in from there, forcing the Cards into more contested looks and having good ball movement. UofL held a small 8-6 lead at the first media timeout, but the Bruins answered with a three immediately following the break. It was all Louisville from there the rest of the quarter.
2nd Quarter: UCLA 32, Louisville 29
Offensive rebounding helped UCLA get an early basket before we saw an extended break due to an injury to Merissah Russell. Louisville went ice cold, which allowed UCLA to take a 25-20 advantage early in the second quarter. Taj Roberts had an answer of her own featuring a pair of deep threes at the top of the key. The Bruins took over again from there the rest of the quarter that was highlighted by a buzzer-beating three-pointer to go into halftime.
Third Quarter: UCLA 50, Louisville 46
Nyla Harris made her presence known with a handful of baskets early in the third quarter. It was UCLA, however, who found the most success during the middle portion of the quarter as they went on a 9-0 run. The Cards would temporarily retake the lead at 46-45, but the Bruins would score the final five points of the quarter.
Fourth Quarter: 66-59
The Bruins extended their lead to seven just a couple minutes into the quarter, leading to Jeff Walz to call a timeout. He showed his frustration before the cameras cut to a commercial break. Louisville went ice cold and allowed UCLA to push their lead to 10. Louisville was not able to cut their deficit to less than seven after that.
Roberts led the Cards in scoring with 21 points on 8-19 shooting. Williams was the only other Cardinal in double figures with 11 points.
FRED Report
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| Freddy Farm Bureau |
Free Throws: Louisville shot 5-8 on the game for 62.5%. Even though the free throw attempt is a low mark, the make percentage is below our threshold, so no letter here.
Rebounds: The Cards were outrebounded 47-43. 13 of UCLA's rebounds came from the 6'7 Betts. No one that saw the court for Louisville was taller than 6'4, giving the Bruins a massive advantage in this. The Cards did have 19 offensive rebounds. Due to the tall task of going up against Betts, I think this sneaks in as a small "r".
Efficiency: Louisville shot 32% from the field and 20.7% from three-point range, both low numbers. However, they had 15 assists on 24 made baskets. Those assist numbers could have been much higher, but the shots weren't falling for the Cards. UofL had plenty of clean and open looks, just with no luck on the shots going in. Sadly, no letter here.
Defense: Louisville allowed 66 points on the game with only six of those coming from the free throw line. With the exception of Olivia Cochran, the rest of the team kept their fouls in check. UofL did force 22 turnovers and allowed just six fast break points. Louisville recorded 12 steals. Despite the loss, a lowercase "d" comes into play here.
FINAL FRED TALLY: _-r-_-d.
It could be worse, but there is plenty of room for improvement. Isn't that to be expected at the beginning of the season, though?
Six of the 11 Cardinals to step on the court are freshmen. Add Williams and seven of the Cardinals are brand new to the team. There is going to be an expected time period where the team has to gel and get more comfortable with the system. All in all, running toe-to-toe with a top five team for most of the game and losing by single digits at the beginning of the year is not a bad loss.
This year's team shows a lot of promise and all of their visible issues can be fixed in the gym. This Louisville team may have quite a few growing pains, but I would not be surprised to see them pull off some upsets along the way.
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| Photo by SI Louisville |
Jeff Walz enters his 18th season as head coach of Louisville women's basketball. He closed out last season with an overall coaching record of 464-135 (.775). While his total number of wins does not crack the top 100 in NCAA women's basketball history (most of those coaches were in the game for 30-40 years), his win percentage is good enough to rank in the top 20, which ranks higher than coaches such as Muffet McGraw, Wes Moore, Sylvia Hatchell, C Vivian Stringer, Lisa Bluder, and Kelly Graves.
Louisville comes home for a Friday night game against Southern Indiana. This is their only home game in the first four games of the season.
Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!
Jared
I like what I see, great effort for the first game. Olivia shot looks like butter.
ReplyDeleteLove the freshmen Cards didn't shoot the ball well missed open looks. Go Cards!