Houston? Lady Cards have no problem...100-34

THURSDAY @ C.C.



-LADY CARDS roll past Houston Baptist 100-34.


Maybe they made Louisville mad by scoring the first two points of the game.


A jumper by Mele Leasau gave Houston Baptist University a 2-0 lead twenty six seconds into the Wednesday night contest between HBU and Louisville.

The Huskies would not score again until the clock showed 12 minutes to go in the first half. In the meantime, Louisville rolled off 26 straight points en route to a 57-26 first half lead.


Jeff Walz played all 13 Cardinals for at least 3 minutes in the first half. In a dizzying display of rebounding, steals, layups and transition basketball...the actual combination of Cardinals on the court really didn't matter...Louisville got the ball and scored. Especially Monique Reid. 16 of her 18 points came in the first twenty minutes of the game...mostly on layups and put backs. Shoni Schimmel and Antonita Slaughter preferred a little more difficult task...they nailed 5 out of the 6 three pointers they attempted in the first half and seven Cardinals scored in the organized blitzkrieg that the Cards delivered in the first half.


The run and gun continued after the Ladybirds entertained the halftime crowd (generously announced as 6466 in attendance.) The Lady Cards went on a 17-0 run to begin the final twenty minutes. Houston Baptist finally got on the board at the 12:10 mark but would manage only 8 points in the final stanza.


A Charmaine Tay three with 42 seconds in the game got the Cards to the century mark and by then Walz had Tay, LaToya Johnson, Rachel Story, Polly Harrington and Sherrone Vails (four of the freshmen) in the game to await the final buzzer.


Vails and Reid led Louisville in scoring with 18 points each. Keisha Hines added 12, Shoni Schimmel's 11 came all in the first half and Tia Gibbs' 10 points rounded out the double figure scorers. Asia Taylor grabbed 10 rebounds..leading the Cards on the boards and narrowly missed a double-double with nine points. All 13 Cardinals played and only Story and Shelby Harper failed to get in the scoring column.


This was the blowout most expected. Most impressive in the stats was that Louisville dished out 25 assists (Schimmel with 5) and committed only 12 turnovers. Louisville scored 49 points off turnovers...allowing Houston only six points off miscues.

The road gets a little harder Friday night when South East Missouri State comes to the KFC YUM! Center. For the record, the 100 points scored marked the 11th. time in Lady Cards history that they've reached the century mark and first time under Jeff Walz. The 66 point margin of victory is third largest of all time.

POST GAME COMMENTS:

Monique Reid on Coach Walz's challenge:

"He challenged us this game. They (Houston Baptist) couldn't score more than 38 points. We knew we could hold them. We held them to two points for ten minutes. Over thirty turnovers. They had 33."

Reid on the defense:

"On our defense there's really no way you can get easy layups. You have to beat us from shooting way out on the court...because we're pressuring the ball. It's a really cool defeense and I'm glad he (Walz) put it in.We caught on to it quick and it's a lot easier than playing man to man. It's like a match up zone...but we're helping out a lot . A lot of pressure with the back line working really hard."

Antonita Slaughter on her performance:

"It was a really good game for me. The Tennessee game I really didn't too too much. Tonight I got a chance to show a little bit what I can do.

On what the team learns from a blow out win:

"It's really not who we play. We just have to go hard, no matter who we play."

Jeff Walz on the rotation:

"We're doing a really good job of trying to get players as many minutes as we can. Eventually, I'm not going to be able to play Monique just 15 minutes. She'll need to play the minutes like she played in the Tennessee game (32). The important thing is that I've got to be able to get Antonita Slaughter and Asia Taylor minutes at the "4" slot. With the loss of Shawnta' Dyer, we have to find someone who can get in there and rebound for us. I thought Asia did a really nice job of rebounding tonight (10 grabs) and Antonita (5 boards) in rebounding tonight."

Walz on the focus:

"I'm pleased with our depth. We've really got some kids who can play. Shelby Harper played eleven minutes tonight. She played 40 minutes a game last year and did well. Shoni Schimmel...she's played really well the last five halves this year. The first half of the Tennessee game was rough but she's played extremely well since then."