Basketball friendly foes -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Happy Wednesday readers, 

Daryl stepping in for Paul so he can get some extra rest.  

With no games on the calendar for the Cardinals,  I'm feeling in a basketball mood and want to look ahead to the early season tournament for the WBB squad in Paradise Island, Bahamas this upcoming weekend.  

Familiarities against the next foe..

I was checking out Gonzaga, the next opponent for the Cards, and noticed a couple similarities and possible connections between the two squads.   Funny enough, the two leading scorers for the Bulldogs, Brynna Maxwell and Yvonne Ejim, did have a few ties to UofL and might have enough experience to give the Cards another tough matchup. 

Leading for the Zags, the 6'1 Junior forward, Ejim, went 9-13 for 22 points and 10 rebounds and 2 steals in first game against Long Beach State and was 4-4 at the FT line.   She then went 7-15 for 16 points 3 rebounds and 4 steals in second game against Southern Utah. 

Maxwell, the 6'0 Grad student guard, went 4-8 with 3 threes and 6 rebounds in both games for 14 and 13 points respectively.

Maxwell

Brynna Maxwell and Hailey Van Lith were both named ALL-USA Washington Girls Basketball First Team in 2018. Players were selected based on their athletic achievements from the 2017-18 season.  The below snippet is what was reported about the two in their accolade acknowledgement...

from usatoday.com

Below are the results of the 2018 Washington State Title results. 

from maxpreps.com

Ejim

UofL Junior Merissah Russell and Gonzaga's Yvonne Ejim are more familiar with one another as the two have experience together on Canada's U23 basketball team this past summer.  

The two donned their national colors on the court to defeat France 78-60 to win Globl Jam gold Jul 10, 2022.   Russell put up 11 points while Ejim finished with nine points and eight rebounds for Canada.

Other Side note:

• In 2021-22 season, the Cards beat Gonzaga 68-59, then played Tennessee six days later and won 76-64.

We will have more preview of this and other potential matchups as the week goes on. 

National Watchlist 

On Tuesday,  Morgan Jones and Hailey Van Lith were both named to the Wooden Award Women's Preseason Top 50 Watch List chosen by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts.

Van Lith has tallied 20 or more points in two of the three games, including 28 points in the opener against Cincinnati and a game-high 25 points in the road win over Belmont.   Jones was one of three to score in double figures against the Bearcats with 14 points and added four rebounds, three blocks, three steals and two assists. It was the first time in her career that she had three blocks and three steals in the same game. She played just 19 minutes against IUPUI but recorded nine points, seven rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal in the home win. Through the first three games, she leads the team with six blocks, third in rebounds (4.3) and fourth in scoring (8.3).

Have a great Wednesday!

As Always, 

Go Cards!

~Daryl