Cards WBB crush Orange 100-64 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 SIX IN DOUBLE FIGURES IN CARDS 36-POINT WIN

Louisville Women's Basketball scored 50 points in each half and put away Syracuse 100-64 in the Carrier Dome Sunday afternoon. 

A balanced scoring effort for UofL, with six players in double figures, led by Liz Dixon's 18 points. Kianna Smith had 16 points, Ahlana Smith added 13, Chelsie Hall and Emily Engstler added 11 each and Hailey Van Lith finished with 10 for the Cards, who shot 53% for the game and held Syracuse to 33%. Olivia Cochran almost made it seven Cards in double figures, with nine points and Kasa Robinson finished with a flurry of five points in the last 1:27 and ended up with seven points on the afternoon. 

The Cards jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first four minutes of the contest and a Payton Verhulst three with five seconds left in the quarter created a 30-17 lead for Louisville in the first ten minutes. 

Louisville was showing no fatigue in their fourth game in eight days and had a 34-22 a couple of minutes into the second quarter, despite Syracuse scoring the first five points of the quarter. The Cards enjoyed a 44-31 lead with 3:19 until half time after a Hall jumper and Van Lith score set the 50-39 half-time score with a jumper 40 seconds before halftime. 

Hall led a balanced Cards attack with nine first half points. The Cards held a 23-10 rebounding edge and already had 30 points in the paint, compared to Syracuse's 10. Naje Murray was trying to keep Syracuse in the contest, with 12 points and the Orange's Carr sisters had combined for 18 points. 

The action slowed down a bit offensively in the third quarter, the two teams combining for just 26 points  Dixon assumed the top hand for Louisville with six third-quarter points, Hailey Van Lith's two free throws with 48 seconds left in the third set the tally at 65-50 Louisville. The Cards managed just 27.8% shooting in the third (5-18), but Syracuse was even worse, going 4-20 for a cold 20%. 

The fourth quarter saw Louisville explode for 35 points, hitting 14 of their 21 shots and holding Syracuse to just 14 points and 4-14 shooting  Engstler had seven fourth-quarter points, playing before a contingent of family and friends in Syracuse and Robinson fired up the Cardinals bench late by nailing a three and then appearing to sink another three the next time down court that was ruled to be just a long two-pointer. The Cards had a 100-61 lead with 22 seconds to go, their largest lead of the game, but a Syracuse three at the buzzer was ruled to be good and UofL had gone to 21-2 on the season and 11-1 in the ACC. 

THE FRED REPORT 

(Two wins this season now...over Syracuse)

FREE THROWS --  Louisville went 11-15 from the free throw stripe, Van Lith leading the way with 4-5 accuracy. 73% surpasses our 70% mandate to earn a letter. When you consider that UofL shot just two free throws in the first half (making them both) I'll give the CAPITAL "F" here for knocking them down when they started to pull away, going 5-8 in the fourth quarter. 

REBOUNDS -- No question here on who was the missed shot grabbing leaders. Louisville won the battle of the boards 55-26. Cochran led the Cards with 11 and Engstler added 10. Impressive that Cochran collected hers in just 20 minutes of court time. A CAPITAL "R" easily earned here, 

EFFORT/EXCUTION -- Louisville had a whopping 60-20 edge in points-in-the paint and 32-12 advantage with second chance points .That indicates a superior effort to me.  Dixon may have had her best game this season for the Cards off the bench and a 23-12 edge in assists and 53% shooting make it verty easy to award a CAPITAL "E". 

DEFENSE -- The Cards limited Syracuse to just 25 second-half points and 23.5% shooting. UofL had seven blocks and eight steals. The 64 Orange points were seven less than they scored in Louisville 24 days ago. Louisville did lose the second quarter, though, and Syracuse did make 10 threes on the Cards. I'll just award a lower-case "d" here.

FINAL FRED TALLY:  F-R-E-d

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A win by more than I expected in this one. It was good to see Liz step up and have the afternoon she did and I was pleased to see Kianna get 16 points. Impressive to win by 36 when you're playing your fourth game in eight days, on the road and getting the win with a total team effort. Good to see Emily return to her previous school, play well and get a win. A nice birthday gift to Kasa Robinson and thanks to the announcers for not querying once where Norika Konno was. Also, good to see a dominant fourth quarter for Louisville.

:Louisville returns home and will bring in Virginia Thursday night. Six wins in a row now for the #4 Cards, who haven't lost since Jan. 20th. 

paulie