Cards Shock Country-- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Women's Basketball Makes Statement with Win over UConn

The country was probably shocked when they witnessed Louisville Women's Basketball defeat Connecticut, 78-69 last night in the KFC YUM! Center.  Four players scored in double-figures  for the Cards, led by Asia Durr's 24 points.

Durr showed everyone why she truly is the BEST player in the country.

17,023 fans packed into the KFC Yum! Center for the event, the largest of the season for the Cards and also the largest of the season for all of women's basketball.  The record for the largest crowd at a UofL women's basketball home game is 22,163 vs UConn back in 2014.

Sam Fuehring and Jazmine Jones each recorded a double-double with Sam going for 10 points and 12 rebounds and Jaz went for 13 and 12.

Jaz also dished out four assists to tie Dana Evans for a team-high.  Evans also tallied 20 points including 5-10 shooting from deep.  Overall, Louisville had 13 assists and limited their turnovers to four.

How many losses does UConn have?

Durr went scoreless in the first quarter, but Louisville still went toe-to-toe with the Huskies, tied 21-21.  UConn's 3-5 from three-point range kept their offense going while the Cards spread the wealth among five scorers.  Louisville's six fouls and UConn's five would total to be the most combined (11) of any quarter until late fourth quarter.

Things were evenly matched in the second quarter, but Louisville won it, 19-17, to hold a two-point halftime lead.  Nite-Nite began to heat up.  She scored 14 points, going 4-6 from deep and 5-9 from the field overall.  Surprisingly, neither time committed a turnover in the period.

Louisville still held the lead, and was winning the rebounding battle. 20 minutes remained. Cardinal fans were as energized as the frisbee-chasing dogs performing at halftime.

The third quarter is where momentum shifted into the favor of the Cards.  They won the quarter, 18-13.  Asia added another seven points to her total, but it was the defense that showed its strength.  UConn was forced to go deep into the shot clock every possession knocking them out of rhythm.

The fourth quarter was another higher-scoring quarter with Louisville winning it, 20-18.  Between Louisville shooting a high number of free throws down the stretch and the Huskies knocking down a pair of threes near midcourt both teams found life on offense.  UConn got a bucket 13 seconds in the fourth quarter but then went silent for almost five full minutes, pushing Louisville's lead to double-figures.

The Huskies were nailing shots late in the fourth, but so were the Cards. No losing the lead late here. The overall shooting numbers were not spectacular (38% U Conn -  UofL 39.7%). Dana gets our "star of the game" nod. 20 points, four assists, zero turnovers.

This was Louisville's night to shine with a nationwide audience checking in and the roar of the KFC YUM! Center will long be a fantastic memory for me, Paulie, Sonya, Daryl Foust and all of the over 17,000 who were in attendance.

The Cards still have plenty of work to do, of course. A dangerous Clemson team awaits them Saturday in Littlejohn Arena. NC State remains perfect. Syracuse is coming in soon and they are always a "tough out" for UofL

Not a lot of time to celebrate this historic win but, oh, what a night down by the river here in Louisville !


F-R-E-D Report

Paulie says...."Nite-Nite"

Free Throws: Louisville looked great for a while before having a rough stretch in the final minute where there were a lot of 1-2 trips to the line.  Still, the Cards went 17-24 for 70.8%.  There was also an offensive rebound in there so the percentage can go up for that.  Capital "F".

Rebounds: Add another game to the list of games where Louisville won the rebounding battle.  The out-rebounded UConn 46-40.  More importantly, the 35 defensive rebounds helped keep the Huskies from pulling in offensive rebounds for second chance points.  With both Jaz and Sam with 10+ rebounds I'm sold on a capital "R".

Effort/Efficiency: 25-63 (.397) from the field isn't great but 11-29 (.379) from three is pretty solid.  What really catches my eye here is the 13 assists on 25 made shots opposed to only five turnovers.  In terms of effort I'll quote Geno Auriemma "They deserve it.  They worked their asses off tonight."  Capital "E".

Defense: Okay, so UofL didn't hold an opponent under 50 points.  UConn scored 69 points, which is still about 13 less than average.  The Huskies were held in the teens three quarters.  UConn had zero fast break points and only 11 second chance points.  The Huskies looked out of whack for most of the game due to Louisville's pressure.  To finish the perfect score we see a capital "D".

When one plays UConn and wins, things must go right so a perfect score of F-R-E-D isn't all too surprising.

I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say that this is a game we soon won't forget and will talk about many years down the road.  It was a privilege to cover the game as media.

Louisville improves to 20-1 on the year should move back up to #2.  UConn falls to to 18-2 for their multi-loss regular season since 2013.  Jeff Walz is now 1-17 against UConn while in control of the reins at Louisville.

The Cards travel to Clemson this Saturday (not Sunday) to play at 2:00 p.m.

Caption These

You can catch videos of post-game below.

In these two pictures, one of Jazz celebrating and Walz looking like he's about to break into dance, it was a time for smiling, dancing and letting their feelings loose.

The Cards met the dragon and slayed the dragon .

Jeff Walz post game presser

                                                          Asia Durr and Dana Evans

                                                               Geno Auriemma

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

(PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON AND POST-GAME COVERAGE BY SETH SPALDING) 

- Jared -