WBB: Lady Cards roll past Indiana Wesleyan 67-42

SUNDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE

-Lady Cards win exhibition

-Field Hockey falls to Maryland

Despite the shaky start and obvious disappointment pictured here by the UofL cheerleaders, Louisville used a strong second half to vanquish the Indiana Wesleyan Wildcats in the KFC YUM Center 67-42 on Saturday afternoon. (Photo by Cardinalcouple)

This one probably didn't start out the way Jeff Walz anticipated. Asia Taylor will be the answer to the trivia question: Who scored the first UofL women's basketball goal in the new arena?...but the Cards couldn't get much going early on against the Wildcats. After Taylor's jumper 22 seconds into the game, it took Louisville six minutes before the next ball went through the net and Wesleyan sat on a 7-4 lead. Four IW steals and 5 Cardinal turnovers (four by Taylor) led to the embarrassing Cardinal start, a start that saw Walz begin the game with Shoni Schimmel, Becky Burke, Shawnta Dyer, Asia Taylor and Keisha Hines.

The Cards picked up the pace after substitutions and Monique Reid, Sherrone Vails and Antonita Slaughter led the Cards back to tie it at 13-13 and go to a 19-13 lead with 7:39 to go. Tia Gibbs played well in the stretch also..she and Schimmel buried threes in the run and Reid
added two layups.

Then, the train slowed down again. The next batch of Cardinals to try their fortunes on the court could only manage four points leading up to half...all from the free throw line. A Elaine Hessel three cut it to 23-21 and that's where the first half ended.

Walz said he stressed fundamentals and defense at halftime. I would have liked to have been a fly on that wall...whatever he said, the Cards responded in a big way in the second half and roared out scoring the first six points in the second half..all off of Schimmel assists...and led 36-24 with 13 minutes to go. A Hines layup off a Shelby Harper pass made it 43-26 with 11 minutes left. Two layups by Vails and a Dyer layup pushed the lead to 52-37 with six minutes to go. Burke's three put it at 57-37 with 4:18 remaining. That lead increased to 67-40 late in the game after a Vails jumper and Louisville got the win by 25 points.

Impressive for the Cards were freshmen Antonita Slaughter and Sherrone Vails. Vails had a strong second half...with 10 of her 12 points and 3 of her 5 rebounds. Slaughter nailed two threes in the game and committed no turnovers in 20 minutes of play. Gibbs, Schimmel and Burke also nailed trifectas for the Cards. Monique Reid led all scorers with 15 points despite not getting the start. According to Walz, the five hardest working players in practice got the starting nod. Based on the sluggish start, maybe he should consider starting the most awake five at game time.

Louisville outrebounded IW 34-28 and shot 49.1% from the floor on a 27-55 effort. 16 of the Cardinal hoops came from layups, which proves the transition game can be quite effective when run properly. Louisville held IW to 32.5% shooting and forced the Wildcats into 27 turnovers.
Slaughter had three steals to lead the Cards and each of the fourteen dressed for the game saw at least five minutes of playing time.

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Coach Walz was matter of fact in the post game press conference, discussing the early turnovers and surmising that the Cards may have overlooked the veteran and experienced Wildcats. He seemed genuinely pleased how Schimmel's game adapted to the pace of the action and had praise for how Vails took the fight to the opponent after being knocked around early in the game. Although displeased with Taylor's turnovers, he was happy with her hustle and athleticism but pointed out that Slaughter played only 3 more minutes, had zero turnovers, three steals and nailed two three pointers.

The Cards will go back to the practice floor for almost two weeks before their next game. The regular season opener against Tennessee on Friday, November 12th. will have a pre-tip ceremony where Angel McCoughtry's jersey will be hung from the Yum rafters. Ol' #35 is expected to be in attendance.

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UofL field hockey took a bad beat on the road Saturday, falling to the #1 Maryland Terrapins 8-0. The Terps jumped out to a 5-0 halftime lead and limited the Cards to just two shots on goal in the first half. Louisville finished the regular season at 13-5 and will head to Storrs, CT. for the BIG EAST Tournament next. The action there starts Nov. 6th. We've put some of Pam Bustin's post game comments in the Field Hockey blog here on the site.