Three or not to three -- Cards face dangerous NC State WBB today at 2 p.m. -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

LOUISVILLE WBB WILL NEED TO DEFEND THE THREE TODAY AGAINST NC STATE

The 23/22 Louisville women's basketball squad squares off against a NC State squad today that averages 25 threes per contest. Louisville is last in the ACC in 3-point defense. 

This should make for a very interesting scenario for today's game at the Broughton High Holiday Gymnasium. If the Wolfpack is crushing them...like they did against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium (where they nailed 10 of them) it could be a long afternoon for the Cards. 

NC State (13-5, 4-1) has a triple-threat from beyond the arc in Dominique Wilson, Jennifer Mathurin and Ashley Williams. The trio has made 97 on the season and NC State has attempted 448 in 18 games. 

The Wolfpack enters the contest on a four-game win streak after losing against Miami to begin ACC play. 

For Louisville to get their 11th. straight win, the Cards will need to display the harassing defense that has held their last three ACC opponents to under 50 points and under 40% shooting. They are also forcing opponents into an average of 21 turnovers a game while committing only 15 per contest. 

Myisha Hines-Allen has been on a tear lately...averaging 15.4 points per game and shooting 52.7%. She'll need Mariya Moore to knock down a few trifectas and Asia Durr
to deliver another solid game off the bench if the Cards are going to even the lifetime series at 2-2 between the teams. 

It would also be a great time for Briahanna Jackson to break out of the mini-slump she's been experiencing over the last two games. Though Jackson is still the third leading scorer on the squad with 13.2 points per contest, she has scored only five points in the last two contests against Duke and Virginia. If the game isn't going her way offensively, she can still be an important contributor to the Cards defensively and creating assists. 

You can watch this one over at the NC State website (GoPack.com) for free. Let's hope the sync between the feed and Matt and A.J.'s call isn't light-years apart. 

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I HEARD IT ON THE RADIO


Our weekly THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR was great fun yesterday and Paige and WorldWide did a wonderful job of breaking down the Cards two wins last week and previewing today's game. They also did well on the quiz...Paige's performance on it is currently under stewards review for possible cheating...but she did narrowly edge out WorldWide 90% to 80% in a brawl that went down to the final question.  

You can hear all the madness at the link below:

LINK: https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-011616


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SERVING UP WINS

Louisville women's tennis got the spring campaign underway in fine fashion yesterday with two wins at the Bass-Rudd Tennis Center. 

The Cards knocked off WKU 4-2 in the morning session and then came back to defeat SIU 5-2 in the afternoon matches. 

Louisville women's tennis coach Mark Beckham was realistic about the victories: 

" We played well enough to win but we still have a ways to go. I was happy with the way we performed. Because we have limited numbers and a couple of injuries, we need to figure out a way to win as many as we can early in the season and then use our improvements as we get back to full strength." 

Ariana Rodriguez won both her singles matches...Elle Stokes had to retire during her singles match in the nightcap due to injury. 

paulie
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