WBB Faces Team Africa in GloblJam -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Take on Africa League Select in Final Round Robin Game

Louisville will face relatively familiar foes in their final round robin game when they take on the Basketball Africa League Select team. The Cards played BAL Select in a scrimmage earlier in the week, though there isn't any information out about that game. Louisville is currently 1-1 in the event and is likely playing for a spot in the gold medal game. Puerto Rico is also 1-1, and they'll face 2-0 Canada this afternoon. The GloblJam event makes it difficult enough to even find results from the games, so who knows what a tiebreaker would be if three teams sat at 2-1 after the round robin portion. Assuming Canada wins, Louisville may be in with a loss as well, given that they would hold the tiebreaker over PR. 

That said, a loss by Louisville today would be extremely disappointing. After a big win over Puerto Rico, Louisville went on to nearly complete a late comeback against the hosting Canadian team. Both of those results matter because BAL Select has not performed particularly well during the event. On day one, Canada more than doubled up BAL, ultimately taking a 98-42 win. BAL Select led 6-5 early in the first quarter; they trailed 25-6 at the end of the quarter. In that one, Canada shot 49% from the floor and hit 13-30 three pointers. They forced BAL Select into 33 turnovers and held them to 32% shooting (2-16 from beyond the arc). 

Similarly, Puerto Rico had a pretty easy go of it on Thursday. Coming off of the 78-55 loss against Louisville, PR put up almost the same score in their win against BAL Select. Although BAL Select was able to hang closer with Puerto Rico than Canada, and they actually came out ahead in the rebounding battle, Puerto Rico took the win 81-58. Again, BAL Select was held to a poor performance from three, shooting just 10%, and again they struggled with turnovers. Puerto Rico capitalized with 23 points off of 25 BAL Select turnovers. Puerto Rico, on the other hand, had points from every player on the roster and tallied 42 bench points. Their depth played a major role in the win. 

The major player for Louisville to watch out for in today's game is Jane Asinde. The Ugandan national team player will head to UTEP this season after spending two seasons with Wichita State. After the GloblJam event ends, she'll return to Uganda to train with the Gazelles for the Afrobasket tournament later this month. Asinde, a 6'-2" forward, averaged 10.9 points and 9.1 rebounds in two seasons at WSU, averaging almost a double-double with 13.1/9.8 last season. At GloblJam, Asinde has scored double figures in both games so far, with a 14 and 7 performance against Canada. Asinde is one of nine players on the BAL Select roster who is playing collegiately in the US. The BAL Select teams are only rostering 12 players each, which may contribute to their struggles against teams with deeper benches. 

Louisville vs BAL Select will be the first game of the Saturday session, and UK will take on BAL Select on the men's side in the game right after. The game will be available via twitter broadcast on the Louisville women's basketball account (@LouisvilleWBB) and will tip off at 11AM. It will also be available on the Canadian Basketball YouTube page. 

No Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

For various personal reasons, we've elected to take this week off from the show. We'll be back next week with more coverage of the joy and excitement of Louisville women's athletics, including a chat about the GloblJam event in its entirety. Luckily for you, now you don't have to choose whether you want to watch the podcast or the game live.

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Photos via @LouisvilleWBB. Nyla Harris (2) contests a shot against Team Canada. Kiki Jefferson (12) and Merissah Russell (13) participate in the scrimmage against BAL Select.