Louisville women's basketball -- Cards shake Wake 89-52

DURR'S 26 LEAD CARDS TO 22nd, 37-POINT WIN SUNDAY

Asia Durr got her groove back and the Cardinals used strong starts to each half to down Wake Forest WBB 89-52 in front of 10139 fans in the KFC YUM! Center Sunday afternoon. 

"I was feeling good. My team-mates found me on the court. It was fun. We played hard. Wake Forest is a great team and has a great coach. We just played hard."

 The Douglasville, GA junior kept it short and sweet. About the same way the Cards rolled over the ACC foe. No dramatic comebacks, no fourth quarter collapses. Just solid basketball from the start. A start where Jazmine Jones jumped in the driver seat, stepped on the gas and drove the Cards to an early 6-0 lead in the first two minutes...causing WFU head coach Jen Hoover to call a halt to the action and talk about it. Jaz explained: 

" I was just trying to play aggressive. Just like Coach tells me to play every game. And, it paid off in the first three minutes." 


Add in recently-turned red-head Bionca Dunham into the aggressiveness and the #4 ranked Cards rolled out to a 20-9 lead after eight minutes. This one was pretty much over. There would be no Florida State type comeback. There would be no Myisha Hines-Allen heroics in the last minutes. In fact, it was a game where Walz chose to use her for just 23 minutes...getting Kylee Shook and Dunham some needed game experience for extended minutes. A game where the Cards led by 42 early in the fourth quarter. Dunham, as we covered, really responded. The consensus on media row is that Kylee needs more work but definitely benefited from getting the minutes against an aggressive Wake front line. 

This was a nice change of pace for Louisville women's basketball. A blow-out. Some fun in the post game presser with Coach Walz turning the table (pretty much with no ckoice) over to his youngest daughter Lucy. She was with Coach because the flu bug has hit the Walz household (a statement Lucy disputed in the post game comments)....which reminds me of the classic Joe Pesci line from "My Cousin Vinnie" when he tells the judge that the whole store has the flu. 

Be advised the Pesci clip below has a few blatant obscenities included. Much like Jen Hoover used in her pre-halftime protest. Proceed at your own risk, you've been warned. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrZrpIgutwY

The Lucy Show (2018 version, with no Ricky Ricardo, WIlliam Frawley or Vivian Vance) below: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47ltvC1B8Ws&t=16s

Disappointed about the loss and not getting to sing with Lucy?

Walz was as proud and bemused as a papa can be and Lucy's carefree, continuous singing mirrored the way the Cards just kept rolling effortlessly back and forth, up and down the court. Non-stop and unrelenting. 

Louisville turned 22 Demon Deacon turnovers into 28 points and yesterday it was the guards occasion to "rise and shine" (see Worldwide's Saturday article)...52 points from Arica Carter, Jones and Durr and just five turnovers. 

After a 24-13 first quarter, the Cards went on a 15-2 run that spanned most of the last five minutes of the second session and two Durr free throws had the contest at 47-26 with 1:14 on the clock. 

The end of the second quarter also produced a rant by WFU's Hoover over an (alleged) foul called on Ariel Stephenson during a Durr three-pointer that ended up getting Coach Jen whistled for a technical foul.  The "ball never lies" theory came into effect, though, Durr missing two of the three free throws she eventually ended up shooing. Hoover's outburst was about as dramatic as any I've seen in the past couple years in the KFC YUM! Center. (She later revealed that Walz came over during the post-game hand-shake line and apologized to her for the questionable call.)

Hungarian FIBA star Dorka Juhasz and family in attendance! 

Maybe Lucy came in and performed a halftime, locker room motivational speech for the team during the midway break, because UofL came out singing and dancing in a third quarter romp which produced 18 points in the first seven minutes and held the visitors to just just two. After three, the Cards were comfortably ahead 72-35 and the only real questions were if they could get to 100 and would Lucy come out and follow her Dad up and down the sidelines.


They didn't get the 100 and  Lucy stayed seated but we did see Syd Zambrotta knock down two threes and Durr got a fourth-quarter rest. Walz only used starters Hines-Allen and Fuerhing for three combined minutes in the fourth (Fuehring fouling out) and Carter got to watch on the sidelines also.  The truth is...Walz could have played Lucy, her older sister Lola and three lucky fans from the stands in the fourth...the fight had gone out of most the Demons and only Elisa Penna seemed interested in trying to carry on the battle, with 11 final period points. 

The Cards had a special visitor in Dorka Juhasz and her family (pictured above) and there was a pre-game scramble to find out who she was. Credit to our illustrious photographer/writer Jared Anderson for getting the pic and info. The Hungarian star is nineteen, checking out hoops in America and we sincerely hope she had a great time. 

It's always a treat to see both Attack Yorkies (Dana Evans and Jess Laemmle) on the court at the same time and although neither scored in the fourth, the Cards played the visitors even in the fourth for the 89-52 win. 

Louisville needed a feel-good, play 'em all, home win like this, especially after the FSU loss (who got ran over by Notre Dame in Tallahassee yesterday) and the scream-fest in Miami. Especially with a tough test ahead in Charlottesville this upcoming Thursday against Virginia and sojourn to Syracuse on Sunday. 


The crowd got what they came for. Ladies and gentlemen, men and women, boys and girls and children of all ages had a blast in the process. 


THE FRED REPORT

Fred Mertz (William Frawley) from "I Love Lucy"
Stunned by the Cards free throw shooting, no doubt

Free Throws -- No complaints here. 20-23 for Louisville. 87% gets a big "OK!" from me. Have a capital F, Cards...

Rebounding -- The Cards came back and won the rebounding battle 37-36. They had trouble with the 6'3" Penna who collected 12 grabs (11 defensive). A lower case "r" for this category. 

Effort/Execution -- Nice to see UofL jump out and not go through a late game setback.  Excellent intensity from Jones, Dunham and Syd. And just 10 turnovers! The capital E was earned yesterday afternoon. 

Defense -- Wake was held to 52 points on 32.1% shooting and the Cards gathered 13 steals and forced 22 turnovers. Their guards were no match for Louisville's. Here's your letter, another capital "D". 

Final Fred Report: F-r-E-D


THEY SAID IT:  

Wake Forest Head WBB Coach Jen Hoover post game comments

JAZZ AND ASIA DISCUSS THE GAME


paulie
xxxxx