Asia Durr scored the first points of the game just six seconds after tip-off and a Lindsey Duvall bucket ended the scoring for the Cards, although the Cavaliers snuck in a basket at the tail end. Durr led all scorers with 20 points.
Louisville (16-1) showed how good their defense is when things are clicking. Granted, Virginia isn't a great offensive team, but, still -- holding an opponent to 43 points is impressive.
Props to Virginia (7-11) for fighting down to the final seconds even though this game became out of reach before halftime. First year coach Tina Thompson has her players playing hard and with heart. Give her a couple of years and she could have a team that will make an impact in the ACC.
The first quarter was fairly close with the Cards holding a 15-11 edge. Louisville had a chance to pull ahead by a large margin early but some missed UofL lay-ups helped Virginia stay in it. The presence down low by Kylee Shook, Bionca Dunham, and Sam Fuehring was the difference. Despite the final numbers UofL started off 1-6 from three-point range.Quarter number two swayed heavily in the Cards' favor.
Louisville claimed the quarter 31-9. The Cards posted 16 points in the paint, tallied 11 points off turnovers, and the offensive rebounds led to 13 second chance points. Transitions were also strong as they added six fast break points. Virginia had goose eggs in all of those categories for the quarter. Louisville's bench (Shook, Dana Evans, and Mykasa Robinson at this point in the game) shot a perfect 5-5 for 11 points to go along with three rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Arica Carter and Durr combined to go 6-9 from three-point range.
Coming out of halftime Louisville stayed hot as they won the quarter 25-10. The Cards shot an impressive 11-17 from the floor in the quarter. They also doubled up Virginia on rebounds 12-6. Louisville's involvement down low in the post remained a strong spot. With the lead continuing to grow for the Cards Jeff Walz began subbing some of his reserves in. Both Seygan Robins and Lindsey Duvall saw a fair amount of minutes in just the third quarter alone.
Walz toyed with different lineups in the final quarter.Still, Louisville won it 20-13. Attack Yorkie Jess Laemmle played the entire period without a break. Duvall, Robins, and Robinson all tallied seven minutes. The new and rather small lineup of the previously listed four plus Shook gave Virginia an advantage at nearly every position.
Their 6'9 player Felicia Aiyeotan clogged the lane and forced the Cards to look elsewhere for points. The Cavaliers also forced several turnovers that lead to easy points. Duvall nailed a pair of threes, Robins knocked one down, and Laemmle hit two free throws. Shook scored seven points in the fourth as the offense revolved around her, and she doubled her prior total for the game.
In the post game presser, Asia Durr was asked about the intimidation factor of facing 6'9" on the court. She immediately advised that, as a player, you cannot let anyone intimidate you
on the hardwood, but she did acknowledge some of the difficulties involved in planning an offense and defense around her, especially driving the lane.
F-R-E-D Report
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| Soccer played simply known as Fred. |
Everything went right, other than a missed long ball by Walz, in the victory.
F - free throws: Louisville was 7-7 from the line for a long time before Robinson missed two down the stretch. Shook hauled in the rebound for an opportunity at some second chance points. The Cards missed a lay-up but the chance was there. Still 7-9 is a solid 78% and deserving of a capital "F".
R - rebounds: It appears Louisville focused heavily on this lately. The Cards won the rebounding battle 42-27. The 14 offensive rebounds turned into 21 second chance points. Everyone besides Duvall recorded a rebound in the game, at least two for each player in fact. This category has seen a lot of blanks this year but today is a capital "R".
E - effort/efficiency: 36-63 from the field for 57% is a good mark. The 12-24 in threes for a 50% is impressive. Seven Cards attempted a three and six made one Durr led the way with four made. 19 assists on 36 made shots is also impressive seeing that many of the 21 second chance points and 13 fast break points didn't have need for an extra pass. Even the bench players played hard down the stretch to the final buzzer. Louisville was hungry for a win and they made sure that happened. Capital "E".
D - defense: Holding an opponent to 43 points is grounds for some type of letter as is. Virginia was held to 19-60 (31.7%) and shot 4-21 (19%) from deep. The Cavaliers are not a strong offensive team, but Louisville pressed hard and did not give up easy shots. During the second quarter, the Cavaliers were held to single-digits. The Cards forced 20 turnovers. It's easy to award a capital "D".
Bingo! We have a winner! F-R-E-D! is the final tally!
FOR YOUR VIEWING AND LISTENING PLEASURE
Last night was also Jeff Walz bobble-head night. The first 1000 fans received a bobble-head, which led to a high amount of UofL fans arriving early. Sadly, that meant 6834 fans were left empty-handed. Perhaps we will see more get released at some point, or after the missed three by Walz -- fans might be returning them. You can catch the reference in the postgame press conference.
Walz brought his A-game to the presser. Of course, a blowout victory makes it easier, but he was all smiles and laughs from the moment he sat down. At the 2:49 mark in the video you can see Walz's face give the "Dammit, Paulie, I knew you were going to ask that" expression. His response was classic. Click the pic to hear the Walz comments !
Asia and Dana were the players that joined us in the media room and it seems Walz rubbed off on them as they were cracking jokes ranging from Walz missed shots to freebie bobble-heads. compliance rules. Their comments are available by clicking their picture.Cardinal staffer favorite from a few years back, Jimmy Yu, is now the assistant operation director for the Cavaliers WBB squad and made the trip form Charlottesville with the squad. It was good to see him again in the YUM! and he and Paulie had a nice chat at halftime.
****You can catch the Cards, who are now 16-1 overall and 4-1 in conference play at Wake Forest on Sunday at 1:00. They'll be on the ACCNE. The Demon Deacons are 9-8 on the season and are in search of their first ACC victory after starting 0-4. ****
(THANKS TO JARED ANDERSON FOR SHARING HIS POST-GAME FEED WITH US HERE AT CARDINAL COUPLE. HE ALSO PROVIDES THINGS OVER AT RIVER CITY CARDS, WHEN MIKE DOESN'T HAVE HIM IN "TIME OUT". )
CAPTION THIS
Jared caught this picture (but failed to catch Jeff Walz attempting a shot in the fourth quarter).
Sound off in the comments section on your caption for this one. Curtis Franklin captured the last "caption crown" and is probably wearing it proudly over in the mean streets of New Albany.
Happy Friday and Go Cards!
- Jared -
MORE GAME PICTURES FROM JARED ANDERSON
MORE GAME PICTURES FROM JARED ANDERSON
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| "Are you not entertained?" |
What a fun time in the YUM last night in the 48-point blowout! I did not get a bobblehead but that's OK, not a bobblehead guy. It always makes me smile to see the abundance of youth at UofL WBB games.
ReplyDeleteI actually took a "date" to the game last night, her first experience at a UofL WBB contest and she had a great time! I expect I'll be bringing her back, if she'll go out with me again.
Only downer of the night was seeing Sam Fuehring take that shot to the mouth at the end. Paulie, I saw you talking to her after the game. Can you reveal what was discussed?
On the photo, it looks like the Viginia player is having second thoughts about trying to go against Kasa. Maybe "Coach, are you sure you want me to do this?"
Curtis "I'd throw a retaliatory punch in Sam's defense" Franklin
Daryl and I just asked Sam how she felt. She said her mouth had just begun to hurt. She has braces and you know how that goes when you take a shot to the mouth. I think Jared got a picture of her with the gauze in her mouth to stop the bleeding. No loose teeth.
DeletePaulie
After last night's ACC action...we have Syracuse destroying Pitt 82-50, FSU handled BC 91=71, Clemson keeps winning (we hope to hear from Arthur later) 71-61 over Georgia Tech, Miami kept Duke winless in ACC play 58-50 and UNC got their first conference win 84-61 over winless Wake Forest.
ReplyDeleteStill three undefeated in ACC play, NC State, UND, and Syracuse. Louisville, Clemson, FSU and Miami with just one loss. BC and GT are 2-3. Virginia and UNC have one win and VT, Wake Forest, Duke and Pitt are still looking for that first ACC "W".
Paulie
F-R-E-D, eh? How about the CASE Report? Were they perfect there as well?
ReplyDeleteC-Care: The Cards forced 19 turnovers from the Cavaliers last night. For a long while, they had very few turnovers themselves. They finished with 18. I will grant that a lot of those came from late game substitutions (8 between Robinson, Robins, and Laemmle), but Virginia is very bad at forcing turnovers. The Cavs rank 338th out of 349 with only 12.47 TOs forced per game. Louisville is looking at the late game substitutes to be ready to come in when called upon and to be the future of the team. Turnovers are turnovers, but they did beat the opponent in this category. Lowercase 'c'.
A-Assists: The Cards finished with 19 assists on 36 made baskets. That's not going to get us our 2.0 ATO, so the late game turnovers really hurt. However, if I ignore those late turnovers, I'd also have to ignore the assists and made baskets, which would push those numbers down to 15/33. Then the Cards would get no letter. It's hard to complain when you win a game by 50, but ball control and a fluid offense is key for this team. Lowercase 'a'.
S-Steals: Louisville had 12 steals. That's a healthy number. Virginia had 9 steals, which is also uncomfortably high. Either way, 12>9 and 12>7.5 so the simple stat gets a simple score. Capital 'S'.
E-Efficiency: 57.1/50.0/77.8. Those are pretty nice stats from the floor. Especially considering the volume of field goal attempts (63 total shots/24 threes). Louisville is best when they're scoring (obviously), but it's particularly true when they're making the most of a lot of possessions. I called 38% shooting terrible the other day, but it's not *that* bad for a lot of teams. For Louisville, 38% won't get it done. 57% will though. Capital 'E'.
c-a-S-E. Once again, turnovers haunt. There were a lot of positives from the 48 point win, but still some teaching moments to keep the Cards grounded. On to Wake.
Dag. If I had Case as a professor, I'd audit the course. He grades so hard, the letters are scared of him.
DeleteNevertheless, another county heard from.
Paulie
Beginning to wonder if the ACC is top-heavy again. Duke, 0-4? Has that EVER happened before? Clemson tied with us at 4-1?
DeleteWow!
Those bench players earned every minute they played, and it was a nice thing to see. They go just as hard in practice as the regulars.
Was there early enough to get a bobble head, but decided not to stand in the line, there were a lot of folks more excited than me, two guys older than me ran up the escalator passing me on the way.
All in all, it was a very good game played by the Cards.
On to the next one.
GO CARDS!
Aside, got to high five Jordan Nwora!
Oh, I'd like to add the stats I track. I take the total assists, steals, and blocks vs to's. I like to see a 2 - 1 ratio for us, vs a 1 - 1 ratio for the opposing team.
ReplyDeleteLouisville was close last night, Virginia was right close also.
Louisville was 19 assists, 12 steals, 3 blocks, 34 total, vs 18 to's, Virginia was 9 assists, 9 steals, O blocks, total 18 vs 19 to's.
Hello Cardinal Couple !
ReplyDeleteA huge blowout for you last night !
I was at Littlejohn Arena watching my Tigers beat Georgia Tech. The second quarter was our big quarter, too. after a slow start. 25-9 , I think.
I continue to be impressed with our defense and Kobi Thornton on offense. Danielle Edwards and Simone Westbrook also really contributing a bunch. Four wins in a row now.
I was maybe most impressed with Aliyah Collier off the bench last night. 19 points. We are definitely not afraid to battle with anyone in the paint and we won the rebounding and points in the paint battle pretty easily against a GT squad that will mix it up with you.
The freshman Balogun for Tech is a keeper, she made more than a few contested shots against us and was their leading scorer.
The Tigers really took it to Tech inside and that's what Amanda is teaching them.
It's so much fun to go and see a win. I wish we were getting more fans in the stands, I'd be surprised if there were more than 750 there last night
Keep winning Cards and we'll go after our fifth straight Sunday at Pitt.
Your friend
#1 Clemson Fan
Arthur
Greer, SC
I'll go with the caption of "Coach, I thought Briahanna Jackson graduated?"
ReplyDeleteLove it!
DeleteThe defense was solid last night. And the most points scored on Virginia this year.
ReplyDeleteCaption. Robinson saying 'just give me the damn ball!'