Cards hang on against Stanford 74-65 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

CURRY'S BIG FOURTH QUARTER HELPS CARDS BEAT TREES. 

Stop me iff you've heard this one before...Louisville women's basketball went into the final quarter with a seemingly insurmountable lead and watched an opponent make a huge rally that almost got them back in the game. 

And that's an apt description of the game against Stanford on Super Bowl Sunday in the KFC YUM! Center. Louisville led Stanford 52-34 with ten minutes to play, but the visitors mustered 31 fourth quarter points, behind the efforts of Mary Ashley Stevenson and Tess Heal...who had 20 points between them, and The Trees or Cardinal, you choose which nickname you like,  cut the Cards lead to six with about two minutes left in the contest. 

They decided to foul the Cards and send them to the free throw line to try and get even closer, but they probably should have picked someone else to foul besides Jayda Curry.

Jayda came into the game with a 93% from the charity stripe success rate, and showed she hadn't lost her touch by sinking 8 for 9 in the quarter and shutting down the Cardinal rally. Just in case you didn't know, Stanford is the Cardinal and Louisville is the Cardinals. And Curry did what she had to do and probably what Cards head coach Jeff Walz wanted in the late going...take the inbounds pass and dribble until they foul you. Consider that UofL got 11 of their final 22 fourth quarter points from the line and 11 from floor shooting.

The Louisville squad trailed 15-13 after the first quarter. A 9-4 UofL lead halfway thru the quarter dissipated in a 11-2 Stanford run that had the visitors up 15-11. Elif Istanbulluoglu nailed a jumper to get the homestanding Cards within two with16 seconds left in the quarter.

Both offenses weren't really lighting up the score board  Would Louisville be able to pick it up in the second quarter?

The answer was "yes". 

Louisville outscored Stanford 6 2 to begin the second quarter, grabbing a 19-17 lead on a Imari Berry jumper with 6:03 to play in the half. Over the ensuing next two minutes, UofL pushed the lead out to 25-18 on a Nyah Harris jumper. It was 28-23 when Ja'Leah Williams hit a jumper with 31 seconds left in the half and that's how the first half ended, Louisville up 30-23 over Stanford. Harris had eight points for UofL and Williams had seven to lead the way.

Louisville came out on fire in the third quarter and doubled the score in those ten minutes on the visitors from California 22-11.  It was 42-29 halfway through the quarter after Taj Roberts nailed a jumper.  The Cards would stretch the lead out to 52-32 with 2:18 left in the quarter on two Willaims free throws, UofL' largest lead of the game, but only Stanford was able score in those final two minutes to make it 52-34 after three. 

Stanford was not ready to leave the YUM! yet and go to a Super Bowl party yet, though. They steadily chipped away at UofL's lead in the fourth quarter and cut the UofLl advantage to 54-42 with 7:22 left in the game. They had trimmed the UofL advantage to 60-53 with 3:45 to play, but Curry stepped up and nailed a three 18 seconds later to make it a ten-point UofL lead.  .Stanford would get as close as six, at 67-61 with 57 seconds to play, but two Curry free throws made it 67-59 with 1:13 left. Stanford kept fouling Curry and she kept going to the fre throw line and making free throws...she had six of UofL final eight points and her two free throws with13 seconds to play made the final score 74-65 Louisville. The ACC's leading free throw shooter showed the 8261 in attendance why she was the leader.

We talked about how teams were having a hard time agaisnt the Cards three point defense on our Saturday podcast. That as true again Sunday, as Stanford went 2-16 for a pitiful 12.5% 

(Today's Fred..Fred MacMurray was the dad in the series "My Three Sons"

 I doubt all three sons combined could have matched Jayda Curry at the charity stripe today. ) 

THE FRED REPORT

FREE THROWS -- Louisville went 16-21 from the line Sunday, that's 76% and exceeds our mandated 70% for a CAPITAL "F" . Curry was cooking with 10-11 for UofL

REBOUNDING --  UofL won the boards battle 35-28. It was a well-balanced team effort with Harris and Cochran leading the way with six each.  CAPITAL "R" is the call here. 

EFFORT/EXECUTION -- Louisville overcame a poor shooting start to finish 26-56 for 46.4%. 18 turnovers didn't kill them and the three guard combo of Williams. Roberts and Curry had 53 points. .It was a bit scary at the end, though. Stanford winning the final quarter by nine and scoring 31 points,  so I will award just a lower case "e".  

DEFENSE -- Holding Stanford to 65 points was impressive but they ruled Louisville in points in the paint 42-22..Still it was a UofL "W"...so we'll allow a lower case "d" for that

FINAL FRED TALLY: F-R-e-d

The Cards go to Florida St. next on Thursday.

SOFTBALL SLUGS PAST CLEVELAND ST 22-2

We now know the Cards softball squad can unleash a pretty formidable offense onslaught when they are "on" . Louisville plated 15 runs in their first two at bats and added seven in the third inning to run-rule the Vikings. 

The Cards were led in offensive production by Char Lorenz, with four hits, six RBI's and two home runs in four at bats. Lorenz sat out last season for the Cards, with a torn ligament in her right wrist, but is making up time in this her redshirt-freshman season.so far. . 

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Louisville used two pitchers in the five innings. Brooke Gray getting the start and picking up the "W" to even her season record at 1-1. She went three innings and Ryann Sanders went two innings in relief...allowing no runs and three hits. 

Louisville goes to 3-2 on the season and comes home for a few days before returning to the road to play on Valentine's Day Feb, 14th against Villanova in Boca Raton on opening day of the FAU Tournament. 

(Basketball photos today courtesy of Mike DeZarn)