Moore, please! Freshman nails six three in WBB win
Although Jeff Walz was visibly not overly thrilled with Louisville's second half performance against MAC Conference member Ball State Sunday afternoon...he had to be happy with Mariya Moore's 6-9 three point shooting and 22 points in Louisville's 69-56 win.
Moore nailed four of her trifectas in the first half and nailed her other two in the second half when the Cards needed a "pick me up" to rally against BSU resilience. Louisville took an early lead on a Bria Smith jumper...but the Cardinals from the MAC wouldn't go away and tied the score five minutes into the contest at 9-9 on a Shelby Merder layup.
That brought Shawnta' Dyer off the bench for Myshia Hines-Allen and the senior responded to help the Cards go on a 8-0 run to lead 17-9 after Smith knocked down another mid-range jumper with 12 minutes left in the half. Ball State would make a run a Louisville with seven minutes left in the first twenty...Jill Morrison's three cutting the UofL lead to 26-21. Moore caught on fire for Walz's troops...hitting three threes in the last four minutes to help Louisville take a 38-27 advantage to the locker room.
Ball State came out with intent and purpose to start the final twenty minutes and cut Louisville's lead to 40-38...and 11-2 run that saw BSU scoring inside and getting fouled. These northern Cardinals were hitting the free throws, too.A technical on BSU head coach Brady Sallee, disputing a steal by Sherrone Vails that he saw as a foul, put Moore on the free throw line and she calmly sank both. Eight seconds later Moore nailed her fifth three and UofL was up by seven with 14 minutes left.
Moore's last three came with 10:53 left in the game to give Louisville a 54-42 lead. Ball State came after the Cards one more time...their 7-0 run over the next two minutes made it 54-49.Walz went to the bench again, reinserting Sara Hammond and bringing Arica Carter and Emmonnie Henderson off the bench. They responded with a 6-0 run..."E" getting five of the points...and it was 60-49 with five minutes to go.
A Hines-Allen jumper sealed it with 1:26 on the clock...the
Cards taking a 68-54 lead...and the Lou. Cards prevailed as the clock reach 00:00...with the scoreboard showing 69-56. Moore led all scorers with her 22, Hines-Allen was the other double figure producer with 14. Bria, Shawnta' and "E" ended with seven, Sara and Jude tacked on four, Megan added three and Sherrone had a free throw. Arica and Ariana played but did not score. Jude had six assists and Sara grabbed seven boards to lead UofL in those areas.
Things we liked:
-How about the freshmen? Moore and Hines-Allen had 36 of the Cards 69 points.
-Louisville forced 34 Ball State turnovers and allowed just 35 Ball State shots.
- "E" played strong off the bench in the finals six minutes...going 3 for 4 from the floor and grabbing three boards.
Things to work on:
-11-25 from the free throw lines is going to come back and "bite the Cards on the butt" (per Coach Walz) if it happens against a top 25 opponent.
- Louisville was 0-8 from trifecta land if you take Moore's out of the numbers. Jude Schimmel 0-4 is bothersome...
- Too many missed shots inside...contributing to 38.8% from the field for the Cards.
- Too many easy shots allowed in the paint. Where's the interior defense? The full court pressure is intense...but Ball State made nine layups against Louisville.
The Cards have a quick turnaround...dangerous WKU comes to town Tuesday. They fell in the finals of the WNIT today to Mississippi St. 88-77.
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Volleyball takes UNC to four sets
Louisville Volleyball fell in four sets Sunday afternoon to #7 UNC...but the Cards did not go down without a fight.
25-21, 20-25, 27-25, 26-24...which is encouraging in the fact that the Cards did win one of the sets and forced extra volleys in two of them.
Tess Clark and Katie George had 16 kills for Louisville and Maya McClendon added 15 for the Cards...who now stand at 15-14 overall and 7-10 in the ACC. Janelle Jenkins produced 11 kills and Laura Blab delivered 10. All of them return next season for Anne Kordes...which bodes hope for the future.Seniors Tara Gowan and Courtney Robison were honored for their Cardinal service
Louisville ends the season with Pitt visiting Weds. night.
Moore won this game with her 3 point shooting. Cards can not depend on that every night.
ReplyDeleteTake those 18 points from her threes out and the Cards do end up with less points but after BSU got within five in the second half...Henderson and MHA took over.
ReplyDeletePaulie
Considering the lack of scoring contribution by Jude and Sara so far this season we're lucky to still be undefeated. If we shoot free throws at 44% and miss 14 free throws again like we did in this game we won't beat anyone that matters.
ReplyDeleteI'm just not seeing as much of the positive leadership from the seniors as I was hoping for. Jude seems down on herself. Shoni never let misses bother her while it seems like Jude misses a few and gets herself in a funk. That won't work if she is going to effective at the point for us. Scorers have to have a short memories. I don't know what's going on with Sara. Hopefully they both wake up and get going for WKU and the rest of the season.
On a more positive note Ms. Moore is clearly the real deal and the other freshmen look pretty good too! Bodes well for the rest of this year and future seasons.
Free throws weren't a pretty sight for Louisville Sunday...for sure. The Ball State Cardinals did give Purdue a very strong game and weren't overly dominated by Louisville's press and full court pressure like Belmont, IUPUI and UTM were. They also have a good inside/outside combination in Fontaine and Morrison...who combined for 31 of their points. Teams that come into the KFC YUM! Center and shoot 56% usually walk out with a "W"...so credit the Louisville defense for getting the turnovers on BSU...especially Fontaine, who had 12.
DeletePaulie
I haven't seen anything yet that leads me to believe that this team will be able to beat a good team. I hope I'm wrong.
ReplyDeleteI've been saying to anyone that will listen that we will know a whole lot more about this team (and the strength of our freshman) after Iowa, KY and Cal. 3 big games in a row start in less than two weeks. Until then, we are just feasting on cupcakes.
ReplyDeleteSara Hammond is frustrating to watch. She is supposed to lead this team, but she cannot even hit a layup. What is going on with her? Jude needs to stop shooting and just work on distributing the ball. Her assist numbers are too low for a point guard, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWKU is going to kick our butts. Gooch will eat us alive inside. I love our freshman though. Our biggest weakness is point guard. I hope Arica Carter can develop but she's young.
ReplyDelete