(PAULIE filling in at the keyboard for Case and a well-deserved day off! )
WBB JUMPS ON DUCKS EARLY IN 74-61 WIN
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| The FatHeads. Julie Sullvan will write about them tomorrow. |
Mission accomplished. The Cards win the tournament!
UofL went on an early 9-0 run over a three minute span in the first quarter to go from a 5-4 deficit to 13-5 lead and Oregon would get no closer than six the rest of the day. Asia Durr had seven of the points in the run and 26 in the contest, making the All-Tournament Team along with Most Valuable Player Myisha Hines-Allen (17 points, 12 rebounds). The Cards improve to 5-0 on the season and are #5 in the nation.
Louisville led this one 23-14 after one and Durr had 14 of them on 5-7 shooting and Hines-Allen added seven in a quarter where the Cards forced six Oregon turnovers.
Louisville kept the foot on the gas in the second quarter, winning the 10-minute session 20-13 and led by 18 points at 42-24 after a Hines-Allen jumper with 1:50 until half. It was a thing of beauty to watch...the bench produced 13 first half points...Dana Evans and Syd Zambrotta contributing 11 of these with 8 for 12 shooting.
The Cards already had two players in double figures at the halftime break in Myisha and Asia and had forced 14 Ducks turnovers. UofL was shooting a hot 55.6% from the floor and were 9-10 from the charity stripe. One had to wonder and worry a bit about an Oregon rally. These quackers trailed Texas A&M by five in the semifinals at College Station Thursday before roaring back to win 83-68.
It didn't happen.
Jazmine Jones dropped in eight points in a five minute stretch to keep the Cards comfortably ahead in the third frame and Hines-Allen produced the final four points in the quarter to keep the Cards head of #10 Oregon 61-46 with ten minutes to go. The Ducks would sneak back to within 11 a couple of times in the final action...but two Durr baskets and Hines-Allen inside pushed UofL back out to a 74-58 lead with 1:17 to play and the Cards take a 13 point victory over a very good Oregon squad 74-61.
THE CARDS WIN, THE CARDS WIN !!!!
THE FRED REPORT
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| FRED GWYNNE - Herman Munster is today's Fred Figure. The Cards could have used his height Sunday |
REBOUNDING -- When you face a squad that has seven players 6'2" or taller, you can expect that grabbing boards might be a bit difficult for you. Oregon won the backboard battle 29-27, despite Hines-Allen's 12 for Louisville. Ruthie Hebard is one of the best forwards in the nation and controlled nine missed shots for the Ducks. WE CANNOT AWARD A LETTER HERE, but hats off to Myisha for her efforts. DOOO-BLAY puts on her hard-hat and reports to the site each and every game.
I'll give her a special "R" for her board work.
EXECUTION/EFFORT -- Louisville started hot and remained hot for the entire 40 minutes Sunday. 24 made baskets on 20 assists and despite 17 Cardinal turnovers and 11 Oregon steals, displayed great energy and got great bench participation from Jones and Zambrotta. Louisville's starters shot 57% in the contest (24-42) and WE'LL GIVE UP A CAPITAL "E" FOR SUNDAY'S EFFORT.
DEFENSE -- Holding high intensity and prolific scoring Oregon to 61 points is a remarkable feat. They came into the contest averaging 95 points in three games. The Ducks had 20 turnovers and shot just 44.4% for 40 minutes. Road fatigue? Maybe, but Sabrina Ionescu didn't score in the first three periods (Great job Louisville guards!) and she finished with just eight points. THE CARDS EARN THE CAPITAL "D" HERE, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!
FRED RECAP: F-_-E-D
SO...
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| We doubt Coach will travel this week dressed like this but that outfit would have been welcome Saturday at football! |
The WBB Cards are #1 in the latest RPI report. Movin' on up!
-- Sam Fuehring is a warrior and has gained maturity. She was getting slammed by Ionescu all game and had to be separated from her twice in the contest. She kept her calm, though, something a freshman or sophomore Sam might have not done. She finished with 10 points and about 3,000 charges drawn, most of them not called by the all-star but basically average referring crew on Sunday of Dee Kanter, Cam Inouye and Bruce "Papillon" Morris.
-- Turkey Time. The players will get a few well-deserved days off before returning to action on Friday against Murray State in the KFC YUM! Center. We did find out in the post-game presser that Myisha and Asia are big fans of sweet potato casserole as a side dish and, yes, marshmallows are approved of in the dish. Coach Walz will jump on the recruiting trail with trips to California and Texas before coming home to carve the turkey (Or it is ham. Or both?) for the family.
Great, another stat to track...
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VOLLEYBALL WINS THE MARATHON 3-2 OVER UNC
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| Melanie also played football in High School. Don't tell Petrino! |
The Cards go to 22-6 on the season and 16-2 in the ACC, good for a first-place tie with Pittsburgh.
On Senior Night, it was a sophomore that was the star for Louisville. Head Coach Dani Busboom Kelly of the Cards shares her thoughts:
"I really can't single out just one person. I feel like the whole team stepped up. They started looking each other in their eyes again and decided we're going to do this. McHenry carried us today, she's been due for a great match. She had two great matches, back to back, this weekend. It's awesome to see her perform that way. Gabbie Wiley led our team in digs and that's extremely difficult for a defense specialist but she was awesome today also.
In the deciding set, UNC popped out to and early 5-1 lead before Louisville fought back and took a 7-6 edge. Tied at 11, the Cards swept the final four points of the match with the final point coming on McHenry's 30th kill.
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| Jared and Worldwide have joined the Louisville Volleyball squad! |
Louisville has a ten-game win streak in Cardinal Arena against ACC foes but will end the regular season on the road at Boston College on Wednesday and Syracuse Friday.
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KICKIN' IT
Louisville advances to the Soccer Sweet Sixteen and will host Colgate Sunday down on Floyd Street.
Louisville is 12-2-4 on the season.
We got this photo late last night from the intrepid Jared Anderson at Men's Soccer. Seems he found Louisville Field Hockey star Minnie Mink in attendance and got a selfie with the "scorer, that's what I do" sophomore. Whether she discussed next year's predictions is not known as of this article being published.
I spend 20 minutes trying to rotate the picture and finally gave up. Lay on your side if you want a better view, or maybe Worldwide will saunter over to our site late today and use his I.T. skills to turn it around. (Jared's the one on the right, or bottom, depending on when you view this).
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EXPRESSING THANKS
Thursday is Thanksgiving. A day where we take the day off from the site and, this year, I have much to be thankful for. A new hip that works great, three of the best writers around that grace these pages daily and contributions from Julie Sullivan and David Watson. I am so grateful they are a part of this independent, non-profit daily look at the joy and excitement of Louisville women's sports and Cardinal athletics. We are fortunate and thankful to take to the airwaves once a week at WCHQ 100.9 FM for The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour and blessed to have the services of "Monk" -- Kathy Weisbach in studio with "Punkin" alongside to engineer and guide us through our 60 minutes of madness and minutia each week. Each week she sacrifices her Saturday morning to hear us babble and that's a Most Valuable Player award-worthy effort!
Our latest show: https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20171118
We are most fortunate to have excellent readers that are knowledgeable and generous.
You are Cardinal Couple and we never forget that. You inspire us. Keep us going.
CARDINAL COUPLE
c/o PAUL SYKES
P.O. BOX 91521
LOUISVILLE, KY 40291
Thank you.
paulie
xxxxx
Love this report today! And, how about #1 Louisville in the latest RPI rankings! Go CARDS GO.
ReplyDeleteCurits "I watch live and in person the best team in the nation" Franklin
We couldn't get to the game yesterday so watched on TV. The CBSSN crew did a pretty good job.
ReplyDeleteI am more and more impressed with the way this team plays defense. Carter, Jones and Evans are relentless on the perimeter and...what more can I say about Fuehring?
Don't exactly remember which girl, but one of them yanked Sam's hair. You'd think that is an absolute no-no, not just on the court but life. Sam did a great job not punching her lights out.
ReplyDeleteIt was Ionescu. It's why Sam wanted to light her up but heer teammates escorted her away REAL quickly.
DeletePaulie
Nice Piece. Check out ESPNW. Excellent Graham Hays piece on ULWBB & Durr. Asia was selected as WCBB player of the week by them. Good Stuff.
ReplyDeleteGood news coming in for Louisville Lacrosse program. Named new head coach, Scott Teeter. Comes from head coaching position at Canisius, and with years of involvement with Canadian national program (U19s).
ReplyDeleteIt could very well also mean we get Kay Morissette back in The 'Ville. She's been an assistant at Canisius and has played for many years in the Canadian national program.
Great news and Cardinal Couple will be there Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. at the "Little YUM" to cover the introductory presser.
DeletePaulie