Cards Use Second Half Run to Down Virginia 71-49 -- Weekend Preview -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

A Tale of Two Halves; Cards Defeat Cavaliers

Despite trailing at halftime Louisville used a big second half to roll past Virginia, 71-49.  Dana Evans led the Cards with 13 points, although five Cards were in the double-digits for points.  Evans also finished with a team-high six assists.

Louisville was down three at halftime but outscored the Cavaliers 46-21 in the second half for a blowout victory.

Asia Durr scored 12 points with most of her damage coming in the second half.  Sam Fuehring (or Firing, if you heard the ACCNE broadcast) went for 11 points and eight rebounds.  Kylee Shook and Bionca Dunham each added 10 points.  Dunham joined Mykasa Robinson with five rebounds apiece.

The two teams were tied at 14 apiece at the end of the first quarter and Asia Durr had a goose egg in the points column.  Bionca Dunham scored early for the Cards and Dana Evans finished out the quarter as the duo contributed most of the points in the period.

The Wahoos took the second quarter 14-11 and their efforts resulted in a 28-25 halftime lead.  The Cards took three minutes into the period to score and went on a four minute scoring drought later on...allowing the Hoos to go up by 10 at one point.  Luckily, Virginia struggled equally as much neat the end of the half because of the UofL defense and the score remained close going into the break.

Louisville looked like a new team coming out of the locker room at halftime.  The won the third quarter 23-9.  A 10-0 run started the quarter for Louisville and they never surrendered the lead after.  Jaz Jones and Sam Fuehring led the charge in the period and Louisville's three-pointers began to fall.

A 23-12 fourth quarter sealed the deal in the win.  Five three-pointers and an old-fashioned three-point play was the theme for the final period.  It was part of a second half where the Cards shot 63.6% from three-point range.

A win that took awhile to develop but was eventually worth the wait. Hats off to a Virginia team that threw a scare into #4 for 20 minutes last night.


F-R-E-D Report

Free Throws- Louisville shot 7-9 from the line, all in the second half.  The 77.8% is enough to earn a"F".
capital version.

Rebounds- Virginia won the overall rebounding battle 38-27, 24-11 in the first half.  The Cards won the second half rebounds 16-14.  The Cards got four second chance points, as opposed to UVA's 15 on the night.  No letter here.

Effort/Efficiency- The bench provided a spark with 25 points and 32 points came in the paint.  Of the Cavaliers' 18 turnovers Louisville scored 20 points.  They also only turned the ball over six times on the night, three in each half.  The Cards shot 45% from the field and 37% from downtown.  Of the 27 made buckets 18 were assisted.  There are some really nice numbers in there, including many of those getting a big boost in the second half and well deserving of a capital "E".

Defense- At halftime, it appeared that Virginia was on the verge of scoring close to 60.  They wound up being held under 50.  The Cavaliers shot just below 39% from the field and went 3-10 from three-point range.  UofL forced 18 turnovers on the game including 11 steals that helped lead to 12 fast break points.  The second half turned what would have been a lowercase letter into a capital "D".

F-_-E-D for a score of 75%, not too shabby, but could be better.  The rebounding was rather disappointing.

Louisville's record improves to 24-2 and they are now 11-2 in the conference and sitting at a 2-seed in the ACC Tournament if it were to begin today.  Their 1-seed for the NCAA Tournament should remain intact.

In other women's basketball news around the country there were a few games worth mentioning.



Georgia Tech put a thumping on Clemson 75-53. Tech is trying to play their way into NCAA Tournament position and may have put Clemson on that NCAA fence with their win.

#16 Kentucky went to #13 South Carolina and pulled off a win 65-57.

Virginia Tech earned their first home ACC victory by upsetting #14 Miami 73-65.

#8 Maryland managed to snag a win at home in the final seconds against Minnesota 71-69.

A Look at the Weekend

Friday, Feb. 22

Track and field continues their trip in Greensboro in the ACC Championships.

Women's swimming and diving continues their stint in the ACC Championships and are coming off an incredible Day Two! The big highlight was a first place and new school record in the 500m freestyle by Mallory Comerford.  We'll report more on this following the conclusion of the multi-day event.

Women's tennis has a big home match against Syracuse at 4:00 p.m.

Baseball will have a double-header against Brown starting at 2:00 p.m.  The second game takes the place of the originally-scheduled Saturday game.

Saturday, Feb. 23

Track and field continues competing in the ACC Championships.

Women's swimming and diving also continues the ACC Championships.

Men;s golf heads to Tallahassee for the FSU Seminole Intercollegiate.

Rowing has a scrimmage in Orlando against Tennessee and UCF.

Softball will play two games in the Tennessee Classic, facing Kansas at 9:30 a.m., and Bradley at 2:30 p.m.

Lacrosse has a noon game against Mercer for their home opener.  Paulie and I will attempt to venture that way following the conclusion of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, weather pending.

Men's basketball has a noon tip-off against a projected 1-seeded Virginia Cavaliers.  Remember last year's... er... last second loss?

Sunday, Feb. 24

Men's golf continues their event in warm, sunny Tallahassee.

Women's tennis faces Clemson at noon, which I will try to make the first few minutes of.

Women's basketball returns home to take on Boston College at 2:00 p.m.  It's their final home Sunday game and leaves one home game remaining after this.

Softball will take on Bradley for a second time in Knoxville at 5:00 p.m.

On a Personal Note

This evening, I will accompany my colleagues in the semi-professional community ensemble I play in for a recording session.  We are applying to play at the prestigious Midwest Clinic held in Chicago every December.

 It is one of the "don't-miss" events for musicians worldwide and features guests from all 50 states and over 30 countries.

We will be one of over a thousand ensembles auditioning for one of approximately 30 spots.  Please wish us the best of luck and fingers crossed we get accepted!

Happy Friday and Go Cards!

Jared