Saturday Cardinal Couple -- Cards romp UC by 39

SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Defense dominates in 72-33 Cardinal WBB win.

The University of Louisville forced 31 turnovers and outscored Cincinnati 30 to 11 off turnovers in a convincing win Friday night in the KFC YUM! Center in front of 9752 appreciative fans. Four Cards scored in double figures in the romp and Louisville outscored UC 41-18 in the final twenty minutes to expand a 16 point halftime lead.

The Cards started the "S" troops tonight...Sara Hammond, Sherrone Vails, Shoni Schimmel, Nita Slaughter and Bria Smith and the team held a planned celebration just 20 seconds in the game with a 30 second timeout after Hammond grabbed her first rebound. She'd go on to corral a team-high eight  boards in 27 minutes...Louisville out-rebounded the four-guard UC lineup 32 to 26. Charlie Springer has a detailed account of the Hammond celebration over at his site...www.uoflcardgame.com

Louisville never trailed in the contest, jumping out to a 9-4 lead at the 16:46 mark after two Vails free throws. With a rather plodding pace in place, Louisville held a 13-8 advantage halfway through the first five and a half minutes before going on a 9-0 run over the next five minutes...before UC's Dayeesha Hollins netted a jumper with 4:46 to go to make it 22-10 Louisville. 

The Cards would stretch that out to 27-11 over the next three minutes and were still comfortably ahead 27-15 after another Hollins score with 1:22 remaining. UofL closed out the half with free throws from Megan Deines and a layup from Slaughter to lead 31-15 at the half.

Deines led Louisville's balanced attack with seven first half
points, Hammond added six, Slaughter five and Bria Smith contributed four. Shoni hit a three for her only points (and shot) of the half, Jude and Monique Reid were good for two each and Cortnee Walton did not score in four minutes.

Louisville came out strong in the second half, Hammond's jumper 50 seconds into play started a 19-1 Cardinal run over a seven minute stretch that gave Louisville a 50-18 lead with 13:11 left.

The Cards hit five out of six three-point attempts during the run and Walz brought in Shelby, Jude, Cortnee and Vails to finish it up with 11:55 left on the clock. Deines replaced Shoni with 6:35 left and Louisville leading 62-30. With minimal substitutions the rest of the way...the Cards outscored UC 10-3 in the final stretch. Alyesha Lovett's three ending a six minute Cincinnati scoring drought with 1:20 left in the game. Two Harper free throws with 40 seconds remaining, off a un-needed foul by Kayla Cook set the final score at 72-33.

Cards win, the Cardinals win!

Slaughter led Louisville with 13 points and went 3-6 from three point range. Hammond finished with 12, Shoni had three threes in the second half to finish with 11 points and Deines completed the double figure scoring Cards with 10.
Jude added seven points, Bria and Shelby totaled six each, Cortnee finished with three and Vails and Reid ended up with two each.

They all played, they all scored.

Louisville committed just 17 turnovers and went 11-14 from the free throw line. 48.1% shooting for the Cards from the field (26-54) while holding UC to 34.3% (12-35). The Cardinal bench outscored UC's 28-6 and limited the Bearcats to just 1-10 three point shooting. Louisville's suffocating defense allowed just six Bearcats to score and two of them (Hollins and Lovett) accounted for 21 of the 33 points UC totaled.

THINGS WE LIKED

1) Effort. The Cards put together a solid 40 minutes and regardless of the lineup, the intensity never waned. Everyone saw at least 13 minutes and no one saw more than 28 (Deines).

2) Fresh out of the oven, have some turnovers! UC had 31 of them..their starting guards responsible for 20 of them. The defensive pressure spurred the big run to start the second half and Louisville forced 14 in the first half.

3) Rebounding defense. Coach Walz has been on the squad about opponent's offensive rebounding and UC grabbed only 10 tonight.

4) Free throws. 11-14 is 78.6% and gets the Cards a gold star from us. Take away Jude's 0-2 from the line and this stat looks ever better.

THINGS TO WORK ON

1) Fouls. Louisville didn't have anyone foul out, but Vails had four, Mo and Bria three and none of the three played more than 22 minutes. Fortunately, UC shoots charity tosses almost as badly as they do threes...8-14 (57.1%) tonight.

2) Fast break points. Surprisingly, UC captured this stat. Barely...4-2. Tough to get much transition going against a four-guard lineup that drops back quickly...but only two fast break points?

3) Blown layups. Not as bad as it usually is, but Hammond's left-handed clank on a wide-open fast break chance drew a groan from the crowd. Vails and Walton missed chances too and, although this is nit-picking...those six points just might be the difference in a game down the road.

It was a better than expected win for Louisville tonight. After struggling against UC last year in Cincy, the Cards never were in trouble tonight. UC is a team on a rapid decline, though...they've lost their last two, both on the road, by 33 and 39 points. The road is a rough place in the BIG EAST...both of Louisville's conference losses have come there and only six BIG EAST teams have managed wins as visitors so far this season. Fortunately, Louisville trip to Marquette on Tuesday has them facing a Golden Eagles squad that hasn't won at home yet this year...

Jeff Walz's post game remarks (also known as his conversation with Paulie and J.J.) at the link below:

Post Game Walz

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