Cards lose heartbreaker at Providence 63-61

CARDS MISS OUT ON OPPORTUNITY TO GET DOUBLE BYE IN BIG EAST...
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-Hankins hits with 10 seconds for the Friar win...
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-Post game Walz comments...
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Mi-Khadi Hankins hit a baseline jumper with 10 seconds left and Providence pulls the upset over the Cards 63-61 in Alumni Gym tonight in Providence. With Marquette losing minutes before to Cincinnati 65-62, the Cards miss out on a gift-wrapped chance to draw the 4 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament beginning Friday in Hartford, CT.

That honor will go to Rutgers ( 11-5) who needed both Louisville (10-6) and Marquette (10-6) to lose tonight and win over Seton Hall...which they did handily. The Cards will go into the tournament as the sixth seed and play the winner of #10 seed West Virginia and #15 seed Cincinnati on Friday.

Louisville couldn't rebound or hold a lead tonight. Providence wins the board battle 30-21. A sluggish start for the Cards had them down from the opening tip and Louisville trailed 16-9 after eight minutes of action. Louisville finally found a spark late in the first half and used a 6-0 run to take a 27-24 lead after two Shelby Harper free throws and 1:48 on the clock. Providence would counter, though with a 5-0 run to close out the half and lead 29-27.

Tia Gibbs led the Cards with 11 points in the first twenty minutes and the Cards went 11-12 from the free throw line. Both teams had 15 turnovers in a very sloppy half of hoops...Gibbs also had five first half steals.

Louisville started the second half positivity with a 6-0 run to grab a 33-29 lead after a Monique Reid jumper...and stretched that out to a 38-31 advantage when Shoni Schimmel drilled a three with 15:13 to go... but Providence came back again and knotted it at 41-41 with a Cropper three at the 12:46 mark. From there on, it was back and forth...with both teams holding leads and making alternate good and bad plays. Keisha Hines tied the contest at 61-61 with a jumper and 1:45 on the clock. After Hankins' jumper to give Providence the final margin of victory, the Cards inbounded and Becky Burke attempted but missed a three pointer. Keisha Hines was there for the rebound but her foot was on the baseline and Providence got the ball back with 1.6 left in the game. Louisville fouled Hankins during the inbounds pass and she missed her front end of the one and one free throw attempt. Louisville called timeout and got a pass to Shoni Schimmel on the final inbounds play...but her half court desperation attempt went wide right and off the backboard as the buzzer sounded.

A disappointing loss for the Cards against a very beatable team. Louisville was led by Reid's 15 points...11 in the second half. Gibbs finished with 14 and Schimmel hit double figures with 13.

It was quite the night for upsets in the BIG EAST. In addition to the Bearcats knocking off Marquette...Villanova beat Pitt, WVU uphended St.John's and USF downed Georgetown.
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Jeff Walz in the post-game:

"We just didn't get it done. It's an embarrassing outing for us. I'm really just sick. Physically sick. I just don't know...I don't understand. I mean...our kids knew what was at stake. I even told them with four minutes to go...'hey...you just got a gift from Cincinnati. They beat Marquette. You gotta put it on the line...let's go'... and then on the next possession out of the time out..we let number one ( Tate) shoot a wide open three. She's their only three point shooter. She goes 3-5. No I take that back...#14 (Cropper) goes 3-4. You gotta know where they are. The problem is...we did not defend on the perimeter at all. That's guards and wings. We let them beat us off the dribble to the middle of the floor..time after time after time. It made us help in, help up and that let to wide open shots. It's an embarrassing outcome for us. One that I hope we can get over quick, as a team. It's one that is going to affect me for a while, though.."
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Walz on rebounding:
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"We did get beat on the boards. We had a seven point lead in the second half and gave up offensive rebound after offensive rebound. We just did not commit to playing hard.
As well as Tia Gibbs played, I think this is the first game..that I know of...where she plays 32 minutes and did not get one rebound the entire night. I thought she played hard but you've gotta find a way to come up with boards. We had 21 rebounds the entire night. That's embarrassing. 21 rebounds and 20 turnovers.
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On the start of the second half:
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We came out and played hard. We boxed out, we rebounded and then we just decided that that was enough and we're not going to play any harder.
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On getting ready for the BIG EAST Tournament:
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"I'm not real concerned about that. If these kids can't get prepared to go up to the BIG EAST Tournament and play..then I've probably got the wrong group of kids. We can't control what we just did tonight...it's over...we're going to watch it (the game film) and learn from it but there's nothing you can do about it and if you're going to feel sorry for ourselves and go up there on Thursday and let tonight's game affect us...then I've got the wrong group of players and I'm not doing a very good job of coaching...because that's the great thing about the sport of basketball...you've got opportunities to continue to play and right now we've got a great opportunity in front of us in going up to Hartford to play in the BIG EAST Tournament and we've got to come out and play and perform. Like I said...man, I'm just sick and it's been a long time since I felt this bad..but this was just a performance I'm embarrassed about and I'll go back tomorrow and apologize to the entire athletic staff..because it is just an embarrassment."
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