Ball State No Match in Battle of Cardinals
Louisville women's basketball is running out of games in 2025. After last night, they have just three remaining before they turn the calendar over, and the non-conference schedule is winding down as well. The Cards took on Ball State last night, and they'll hit the road to face North Carolina this weekend. After that, there is one more home game against EKU and a neutral site matchup against Tennessee before the Cards move into the proper conference schedule. Facing a somewhat more difficult opponent last night than they have seen in some of their home games of late (excluding South Carolina), Louisville handed Ball State their third loss of the year with a strong 31-point victory.
Louisville wasted no time in this one, jumping out to a 21-12 lead after the first quarter. The Cards shot just 35% from the field in the first and made just 1-7 three-pointers, but six free throws helped them extend that lead over Ball State. The two teams played fairly close early on, with Ball State having multiple chances to take the lead, but after a pair of free throws moved Louisville from a 6-5 lead to an 8-5 lead, Ball State would not meaningfully reduce the deficit for the remainder of the game. The Cards ended the quarter on an extended 15-7 run and that was pretty much that.
Louisville shot much better in the second quarter, making 5-8 threes and shooting 60% (12-20) from the floor overall. As a result, they won the quarter 29-13, extending the large lead by even more at the half and setting themselves up to cruise through the second half. The Cards had a chance to break 100 in this game, but the shooting cooled off slightly in the third quarter and some missed free throws in the fourth kept them from running it up.
All in all, UofL shot 48.5% in the second half and went 36.4% from three. That was a slightly better in overall field goal percentage than the whole game (47.9%) but slightly worse from three (38.5%). Louisville scored a whopping 42 points in the paint, had 17 second chance points, and picked up 50 of their 93 from the bench. Louisville mostly cruised in the second half, winning the half by just six. But when that ultimately contributes to a 31-point victory and you were at the end of your bench for most of the fourth, it's not all bad. The Cards scored at least 20 points in every quarter.
The Cards were led by a big night from Skylar Jones, who finished with 20 points in 18 minutes and also contributed seven rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Her seven rebounds were second to Anaya Hardy's ten, as Hardy picked up yet another double-double by scoring 12 points. Mackenly Randolph also had 12, and Laura Ziegler had a big night, taking advantage at the free throw line especially, to score 15 points. Ziegler was 6-6 from the stripe. It was a quiet night for two players we don't usually say that about, as Taj Roberts scored just four, and Elif Istanbulluoglu had no points on 0-3 shooting in 20 minutes. Incredibly, it was Elif who kept it from being another night in which everyone who played scored.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Imari Berry and Peyton Bradley, who both had some of their best games of the year, scoring ten and eight points respectively. Berry also had a rebound, two steals, and three assists, while Bradley added two assists. Overall, the Cards assisted on 14 of 35 made baskets, which isn't great, but they also had 15 turnovers, so the offense could have used some cleaning up. Louisville also didn't force a ton of turnovers, as Ball State also finished with 15, but the visiting Cardinals couldn't find the bottom of the net. Ball State went just 35.6% from the field and 21.1% from three point land. Add in a sub-70% night from the free throw line and it was just an unfortunate night all around. Ball State went 0-9 from beyond the arc in the first half.
The FRED Report
F - Free Throws: Louisville was kind of back and forth at the free throw line last night. They went 6-6 in the first and 6-7 in the third, but they took no free throws in the second and went 1-4 in the fourth. They finished 13-17 (76.5%), which is good for a lowercase 'f'
R - Rebounds: The Cards had 45 total rebounds and scored 17 second chance points. That is pretty good, but they only won the rebounding battle (and points in the paint battle) by nine. I initially felt like Louisville should have a bigger advantage here, but they had 25% more rebounds than their opponent, so that seems worthy of a capital 'R'.
E - Effort/Execution: The Cards played well throughout and didn't lose focus near the end, but they should have been a bit cleaner. Louisville sent Ball State to the line 23 times, and they committed 15 turnovers, giving up 17 points off those turnovers. I'm going to award a lowercase 'e' because the shooting night is too hard to ignore, despite the turnovers.
D - Defense: Louisville forced only the same amount of turnovers as they committed, but they converted that into more points (22) and they picked up 10 steals. They also kept Ball State from getting clean looks and saddled them with the terrible shooting. I'm going capital 'D'.
That gives Louisville a final tally of f-R-e-D, which will probably get it done most nights. There will be games in which the offense isn't working quite as well as it did last night, so more turnovers forced and fewer turnovers committed would be nice, but we'll take what we can get.
Louisville is next in action on Sunday against UNC. The Tarheels are enjoying another strong start to the season as they are 9-2. Their losses are to #3 UCLA in Las Vegas and #2 Texas in Austin. That said, they've played basically no one else, and their best win is an eight-point win over Kansas State in Cancun on Black Friday. The Heels beat Boston University 82-40 on Sunday and have a full week off before facing the Cards. We'll see what Coach Jeff Walz can do to motivate his team in a big road test early in the conference slate.
Until next time, Go Cards!
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