Louisville WBB Wins Again... Softball Visits Raleigh... FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDS FLY PAST EAGLES

Win number 26 is in the books.  Louisville soared to an 87-52 win over Boston College in front of a crowd of 929.

Six different Cardinals posted double-digits in points, and every player found their way to the basket, other than Dana Evans’ goose egg.  She did record eight assists and one steal to go along with one turnover, so she earned her fair share on the stat sheet.

Nite-Nite (Asia Durr) posted a team best 16 points, but had Sam, Doo-Blay (not one last night, though), AC, Jaz, and Kylee hot on her tail.  That offense did not get going until the second quarter though.

Boston College raced out to a 19-7 lead, their biggest lead of the game.  At the end of the first quarter the women in red and black had about half as much as their opponents.  Coach Walz gave the team an earful and it paid off.  Louisville used a 20-4 second quarter to go into halftime with a five-point lead.  They would not look back as the lead grew in the two remaining quarters.

The Cards outscored BC 46-15 in the final 16 minutes. 

Sam and Kylee both gave a good run for game ball.  Sam finished with 14 points, seven rebounds, and three assists while committing no fouls or turnovers.  She did, however, struggle from the free through line, going 4-for-8.  Kylee finished with 11 points, three rebounds, two assists, and a team-leading four steals while committing one foul and had no turnovers.  She struggled at the free throw line too but nailed a trio of three-pointers.

J-A-R-E-D Report

Rams QB Jared Goff (not our Jared) 

J – jump shots: Louisville shot 55.2% from the field and 52.6% from downtown.  Four Cards made a three, with three of them pulling off a hat trick and Jess nailing hers with one-minute remaining in the game.  If you take away Dana’s off night, then that shooting percentage rises to 62%.  Still, either way it was a solid shooting night overall, so they earned a capital “J”.

A – assists: 20 assists is going to be a nice night for the offense.  It was also double Boston College’s number.  Dana had nearly one-third of the team’s assists but was also one of seven players to dish an assist out.  Without a doubt they get a capital “A”.

R – rebounds: The Cards out-rebounded the Eagles by one.  Granted, their high-percentage shooting resulted in less chances to rebound.  They stayed true to their season average with about two-thirds of the rebounds being defensive.  The 11 offensive rebounds helped the Cards gain 11 second chance points.  I was hoping to see a larger rebound margin against a lesser opponent.  They still won the rebound contest which is enough for a lowercase “r”.

E – effort: The effort was not there to start the game off.  I had a few flashbacks of the UConn game from the other night.  Whatever vocabulary Walz elected to use motivate his team worked well.  They hustled and communicated like the Cards we have seen most of the season.  They won the final three quarters and cut down on the turnovers while cranking up the tempo.  They earned a capital “E”.

D – defense: It took a few minutes to get the defense going but they pulled through.  Boston College was held to 52 points with only 29 of them coming in the final three quarters.  The Cards were stingy in the second quarter, allowing a season low four points.  There was another single-digit quarter later in the game too.  You can’t win if you can’t score, right?  They also forced 20 turnovers.  The only downside on defense would be the zero blocks on the night.  There’s not much of a contest in awarding them with a capital “D”.

“J-A-r-E-D” is a good report card.


ACC/BIG 10 CHALLENGE

Softball begins their second weekend of play today.  They have been in Raleigh for a few days already preparing for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.  Ohio State and Northwestern are the opponents for the weekend, and the Cards will face both twice.

The Buckeyes sit undefeated on the year at 5-0. 

Ranked 22^nd in the country and having won by mercy rule three times this season makes Ohio State a favorite going into the weekend.  Northwestern’s record is the same as Louisville’s.  The only loss for the Wildcats came against a Top Ten Arizona team.  Two of their wins were by mercy rule.  They are in the receiving votes category currently.

Louisville is going into nothing but dogfights on the weekend.  Their Big Ten opponents have big bats and are guaranteed to put plenty of runs on the board.  The bright side is that both teams also allow plenty of runs too.

The Cards sit at 4-1 on the year with a few late game heroics in the wins.  Six players are batting .333 or better so far.  Jenna Jordan and Nicole Pufahl each have a home run and are tied with Kyra Snyder for most RBI’s on the team with four.

The downside to the season so far is that some of the weaknesses carried over from last year.  Infield defense still has not resolved itself, especially on the left side.  Fielding errors continue to hurt the Cards by giving the opponent a free baserunner.  Leaving runners stranded on offense has been a common theme too.

I hope to see the success from opening weekend continue this weekend too.  Going 2-2 on the weekend also wouldn’t be a terrible few games either.  They face their toughest opponents on the schedule yet.  A 4-0 outcome would be great, but even 3-1 or 2-2 would still be decent too.


SWIMMING AND DIVING

Women’s swim and dive is halfway through the ACC Championships.  They prepare for some of the final rounds today and tomorrow as they hope to claim the conference crown and prepare for the NCAA Championships in March.

After two days, the Splash Cards are in second place in the ACC Tournament with 414.5 points. Virginia leads with 442.5. 


ON THE RADIO

Daryl knows stuff. 

Taking my place on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour tomorrow will be Daryl Foust.  I will be at work continuing my journey of moving up the ranks to become CEO.  If you cannot contain your excitement of another exciting session you can always turn on WCHQ fm radio at any point.  Unlike Sirius XM, fm radio is still free and the 100.9 fm frequency has some great local music!

We will be on Facebook Live for the broadcast tomorrow as well. If you haven't tried this unique way of watching and listening to...well, just about anything...it's free and maybe it's why we're bringing in the lovely and knowledgeable Daryl, so you won't have to stare at our ugly mugs. 

Enjoy your Friday and have a good weekend! Go Cards!

Jared