Cards Crush Panthers -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Elif Scores Career High in 91-38 Win

A three-pointer by Tiny Lewis cut the Eastern Illinois deficit to one at 13-12 with 3:27 remaining in the first quarter. The Panthers had held close to Louisville for the first portion of the opening stanza, but that would be the end of that. Louisville closed the first on an 8-0 run to win the quarter by nine and won each subsequent quarter by no fewer than 13 points. Louisville's offense was largely consistent quarter-to-quarter (21, 26, 22, 22), while the defense held EIU to fewer points each quarter (12, 11, 9, 6). All in all, it was an expected thumping, as the loss moved Eastern Illinois to 0-6 on the season and the win took the Cards to 5-2. 

After the first six minutes or so, Louisville was never really troubled in this one. It might even be fair to say that they weren't particularly troubled at the beginning, despite the surprisingly close score. Once the Cards settled in, they had it fairly well under control. Walz was able to clear the bench and play 12 players, and, for the second time this season, every player that saw the floor scored a point. What's more, every player scored a field goal. The Cards were led by Taj Roberts, who scored 13, while Elif Istanbulluoglu and Mackenly Randolph tied at second with 12. The 12 points were a career high for Elif, who added six rebounds, an assist, two blocks, and two steals. The total was also Randolph's season high, and it missed her career high by one point (13 against Duke last season). 

Reagan Bender also had a nice night. Her career high is also 13, and she only scored eight in last night's game, but she added five rebounds, four assists, and five steals. The phrasing ends up coming off as a bit of a joke, but being halfway to a quadruple-double is nothing to scoff at. Bender did all this in a career-high night in minutes, as she led the team with 24. In addition to minutes, last night set career highs in field goal attempts, makes, rebounds, assists, and steals. Anaya Hardy had another double-double in 21 minutes, putting up 12 rebounds to go along with 11 points. She also had two steals. 

All in all, there isn't a whole lot more to say. Eastern Illinois is not a good team, so winning by 50+ points shouldn't be a great surprise. Getting a solid performance from everyone is quite nice, though, and you look for that in games like last night's. That said, the team wasn't as locked in as they could have been, which we'll cover up next in The FRED Report, but they still had an enjoyable Black Friday and will be set up for another big day today. 

The FRED Report

F-Free Throws: If there was one spot Louisville came up short (other than turnovers), it was free throws. The Cards got to the line quite a bit, earning 25 attempts, but they hit on just 17 of those. Louisville had no perfect quarters, and Taj Roberts went 0-2 at the stripe. Those last two stats are just icing on the bad cake, since a 68% qualifies for no letter all on its own. 

R-Rebounds: Louisville may not have had the tallest player on the floor (EIU had someone at 6'10"), but the Cards were the bigger and more physical team on average. They showed it, cleaning up 46 rebounds, compared to 34 for the Panthers. Louisville had 20 offensive rebounds and scored 19 second chance points. They held EIU to just nine o-boards. Capital 'R'. 

E-Effort/Execution: The final point total is nice. It's hard to score 91 points, though maybe not incredibly difficult when the opponent gives you as many chances as EIU did. Still, Louisville shot 46% from the floor and 35% from three. They assisted on 20 of their 33 makes. The big issue here is the turnovers. Louisville had 15, and I can't give a capital letter for that. Lowercase 'e'. 

D-Defense: Louisville's defense, as I mentioned earlier, got stingier as the game went on. They allowed just 38 points, fewer than ten per quarter, and they picked up 17 steals. They also had three blocks and forced a total of 31 turnovers. Yeah, I'm gonna go with a capital 'D'.

If you're going to have an off night at the free throw line, it's best to do it when you win by a million points, I suppose, but the turnovers were unfortunate. Louisville finishes with a final tally of _-R-e-D. Daryl will love that, since her favorite Louisville chant is "Go Big Red." (Sarcasm very much intended.) The Cards will be back in action today when they take on East Tennessee State. Today's game will be at 3:30, and it will be held in Knights Hall on Bellarmine's campus. Because it's at Bellarmine and not hosted by UofL, this game will be on ESPN+ instead of ACCNX. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case