WBB tops Syracuse 81-69, leads the ACC -- FRIDAY CARINDAL

FRIDAYS WITH DARYL



Hello again readers and welcome back to my favorite day of the week.  And...Happy Groundhog Day! 

Fridays just hit different. Especially payday Fridays. It's a new month, the president of UofL has officially been with the university for a year and we are looking forward to a giant month of basketball for the WBB program. I can also sense the ice is thawing off of the softball program.  Lets hope that groundhog says spring is near... 

WBB

                                       Photo: Jared Anderson

FINAL- UofL 81, 'Cuse 69

The Cardinals marked another notch in the win column and put themselves solely in first place in the ACC at 8-1 and 19-3 overall.  Nyla Harris led Louisville with a career high 18 points and pulled down 14 points.  Kiki Jefferson had 21 points in the game where she went 9-11 at the line.  It was a game where the Cards took awhle to get started, but, once they did, they took over and won before an appreciative crowd.

End of 1Q 21-14  Syracuse

FG %
6-13 46.2% Cards
9-16 56.3% Orange
Reb. 10-7 Orange
3-pt %
0-2 0% Cards
1-5 50% Orange


To start the game, Sydney Taylor fed it to Olivia down low to put it up and in.  Kiki Jefferson then hit a jumper for 2 to make it 4-0 Cards while Syracuse committed 2 turnovers in the first 2 minutes.  After that, the Orange started to find some momentum and they took a 6-5 lead with 6:42 on the clock on a crazy layup by Dyaisha Fair which seemed to inspire the Orange as Syracuse went ona  run shooting 4-5 from the field.  After a small scoring drought by the Cards, Nina Rickards hit a jumper to make it 10-8 'cuse after 5 min of play.

If Syracuse didn't go 0-6 with three offensive rebounds in the last minute of play they might've had an outstanding shooting percentage....and really put Louisville in a big hole. They were shooting 89% (8-9) at one point and finished the quarter scrambling but were able to keep the ball out of Louisville's hands.


End of 2Q  26-13 Cards


FG %
11-17 64.7% Cards
4-16 25% Orange
Reb. 11-6 Cards
3-pt %
2-3 66.7% Cards
1-7 14.3% Orange


Rickards hit two back to back jumpers and the Cards turned the Orange over in between, bringing them within three at 21-18 before another empty possession for Cuse allows Jefferson to push and find some more offense and brought the Cards within 1hree. Syracuse called a timeout 1:15 min into the quarter.  The Cards regained the lead 22-21 when Le Le Love hit a layup at the 7:30 min mark.  The Cards held Syracuse scoreless for the first 3:45 in the quarter.   Rickards hit another jumper, her fourth of the quarter to put UofL up 30-23.

Syracuse then hit a 3, stole the ball for a fast break layup from Fair to make it 30-28 Cards when Walz called another timeout. After it,  Syd Taylor hit two big threes to extend Louisville's lead again to 36-29 with about 2 minutes left until halftime.


HALF 40-34

End of 3Q 20-13 Cards

FG %
6-12 50% Cards
3-16 18.8% Orange
Reb. 13-10 Cards
3-pt %
0-2 0% Cards
3-5 60% Orange



Kiki Jefferson got the scoring going to open the second half with a jumper and a couple free throws to put the Cards up by 10 (44-34) just a couple minutes into the half.  Jada Curry picked up her third foul with 3:10 left in the third.   Not a very offensively productive game for Jada on this night.  The Cards went on 7-0 run, building a 55-43 lead.  Syracuse went scoreless from the field for almost 4 minutes while the Cards found themselves in a scoring drought of their own for about 3 minutes.



End of 4Q   22-21  Orange

FG %
5-14 35.7% Cards
9-21 42.9% Orange
Reb. 10 all
3-pt %
1-6 16.7% Cards
3-7 42.9% Orange



Heading into the final quarter, Louisville lookied to maintain some distance. They went on another scoring drought of over 4 minutes, though, where they went 0-7.  
Syd Taylor hit another 3 to put the Cards up 66-53. With 2:30 to go in the game, Syracuse had 57 points, 20 under their season average. 

Louisville put together a string of fast break layups to kill some clock and keep any of the Orange's attempts to close the gap from meaning much of anything. The Cuse possibly might've had a remote chance when they made another 3 and got it within 10 with 48 seconds left in the game. Syracuse called a timeout but didn't do anything with the final seconds as the Cards dribbled it out to victory.  

Photos: Jared Anderson

UP NEXT

Louisville vs #5 NC State

Monday February 5th

7pm ESPN2

FRED REPORT

NBA player Fred Van Fleet

FREE THROWS -- Louisville went 22-29 at the free throw line which is good for 75.9% Kiki Jefferson led going 9-11 while Nyla Harris followed suit going 8-10. Big night for the Cards at the charity stripe and it was needed in a night where the 3 pointers were not really falling.  CAPITAL F

REBOUNDING -- The Cards outrebounded Syracuse 41-36 after a big second quarter with the Cards securing a 11-6 advantage. It was Nyla's night as she pulled down 14 rebounds, 6 of them on the offensive end.  CAPITAL R


EFFORT/EXECUTION -- After the Orange started the game 8-9 shooting almost 90% and winning the first quarter 21-14,  the Cards flipped the script and doubled them up 26-13 to take a lead into the half and never let it go. The 3s weren't falling for UofL but the Cards managed to find other ways to score.   The team gave the crowd of over 8,200 plenty to cheer about.  CAPITAL E

DEFENSE -- The Cuse averages more than 77 ppg and UofL held Syracuse to 69 points in the game. Dyaisha Fair, who Walz believes is the best guard in the league, played all 40 minutes and went 10-23 from the field for 28 points, 13 of which were scored in the 4th quarter.. she seemed to run out of gas towards the end. Capital D


FINAL FRED TALLY: F_R_E_D


Its been a long week...enjoy the weekend and let's get a few more relaxing weekends at home and some big basketball wins this month!! 



As always,
Go Cards

~Daryl