Cards Ground Eagles 96-49 -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Nearly Doubles Up Morehead State

Louisville brought in a blue team from Kentucky in their final tune-up before they face the blue team from Kentucky on Saturday. In the end, Louisville dominated Morehead State, finishing with a season-high 96 points and seeing seven players post double-figures in scoring. That marks the most in a game in almost exactly two years, as eight scored double-digits against Bellarmine on November 16, 2023 (thanks for that stat, Matt). The Cards led nearly wire-to-wire, and despite letting off the gas a bit in the fourth, won all four quarters, on route to a 96-49 victory. 

Very early on, it looked like the Cards might suffer from the same sluggish start that has plagued them in most games this season. Morehead State hung around and led 7-6 after three minutes. However, that was pretty much the end of that. Louisville went on a 13-0 run to snatch a big lead and then finished the quarter on a 10-0 run to make it even bigger. Overall, they won the last seven minutes of the first quarter 23-3 and won the quarter 29-10. The Cards went 12-17 from the floor in the opening stanza.

Louisville also scored the first six points of the second quarter, pushing their lead to 25 and putting the game firmly out of reach. It was mostly academic after that point, with the Cards scoring basically at will until the fourth quarter. Coach Jeff Walz played eleven players in this one, and each player scored. Taj Roberts saw the most time on the floor with 27 minutes, but the next three highest minutes earners came off the bench. Everyone played double-digit minutes, bar Mackenly Randolph, who saw only seven minutes as a starter. Of the seven in double figures, four scored 13 points to lead all players, with two starting and two coming off the bench. 

Louisville scored 85 points in the first three quarters of the game. Pretty good, if you ask me, but a bit d
isappointing that they couldn't break 100. Tough thing to be upset about. The Cards finished 33-61 from the floor (54.1%) and 10-26 from three (38.5%), but if you exclude the fourth quarter, they shot 28-45 (62.2%) and 9-16 (56.2%) before garbage time. Not too shabby. Reagan Bender, one of the players who scored 13, led the team with three made three-pointers. She was 3-4 from the floor (all from beyond the arc) and went 4-4 from the free throw line.

Also scoring 13 points were Roberts, Laura Ziegler, and Imari Berry. Anaya Hardy was close behind at 12, and Elif Istanbulluoglu and Reyna Scott rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 apiece. Hardy also led the team in rebounding, posting a double-double with 13 rebounds. Scott and Berry tied for the team lead with four assists, as Louisville assisted on 22 of 33 made baskets. 

The FRED Report

F-Free Throws: Louisville shot 20-23 from the free throw line which is good for 87%. All three misses came from post players, with seven players making all of their free throw attempts. I think 90% is supposed to be the cutoff for a capital F, though, so we'll stick with a lowercase'f', but I do so begrudgingly. 

R-Rebounds: The Cards put a palindrome on Morehead in the rebounding category, winning the battle on the boards 42-24. That was largely to be expected, given the difference in talent and athleticism, but it's still important to get it done. Louisville allowed eight offensive rebounds, but they had 12 of their own. While the Cards could only score nine second chance points on those rebounds, they did manage to keep MSU to just two. Plus, Hardy snagging more than half of MSU's total rebounds by herself is fun. Capital 'R'.

E-Effort/Execution: Louisville fell off a bit in the fourth, but that was largely garbage time for the Cards. They still managed to win the quarter, and I'm certain that Skylar Jones, Peyton Bradley, and Rebekah Graves would have preferred to do better than 1-15 from the floor. The Cards had just 11 turnovers, with a couple of those coming on offensive fouls, and I already mentioned their 22 assists. A 2:1 ATO is quite good, and they did it with a 66% assist rate. Add in the shooting percentages, and the big scoring runs, and I'll say they executed well with high effort. Capital 'E'.

D-Defense: The Cards gave up fewer than 50 points. They held the Eagles to 35.3% shooting, allowing just 7-27 from beyond the arc. They did send Morehead State to the line a few too many times, giving up 17 free throw attempts, but MSU couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, going 6-17 from the stripe. Louisville had 10 steals as part of their 18 forced turnovers, though they weren't able to pick up a block despite the size advantage. It was still a strong defensive performance, leading to Louisville's first true blowout win of the year. (They pulled away from NKU late, but it was close for quite a while.) I'll award a capital 'D' here, because I'm not sure how to award much else.

That gives a final tally of f-R-E-D, which is just about as good as you can do. The lowercase 'f' is a bit misleading when Louisville won the free throw battle by 14 points, but it's nice to have places to improve. 

The Cards have a relatively short turnaround this week, with a Saturday game instead of Sunday on the calendar. Louisville will host Kentucky in the fifth Battle of the Bluegrass of the month of November. Louisville is 4-0 in the four so far (M/W swim & dive, MBB, WSOC) and football will play the sixth and final next week. UK is a couple of spots ahead of the Cards in the latest polls, and they sit at 6-0 so far. UK hasn't had much competition, but they haven't struggled to blow teams out. Their closest margin of victory was a 26-point win over Morehead State in the season opener. Their 75 points in that game was their fewest in a game so far, and they're averaging an 84-44 victory. UK's latest game was a 76-35 crushing of Purdue on Tuesday. 

Saturday's game will be UK's third true road game of the season, as they have played at Buffalo and Marshall this year. The Yum! Center should be a much more hostile environment to walk into, but Louisville will need to bring their A-game against the Cats. Tipoff is at 2PM on Saturday, and the game will be on The CW. 

POSTGAME WITH COACH WALZ

POSTGAME WITH HARDY & ISTANBULLUOGLU

Women's Soccer in NCAA Second Round

After last week's thriller against UK, Louisville women's soccer closed up shop at Lynn Stadium and hit the road. The Cards will take on Kansas this afternoon in Durham, North Carolina, with the winner set to face the winner of #2 Duke vs #7 UCF. It has been all chalk in the quadrant so far, but #6 Louisville will look to spring the first upset when they take on the #3 Jayhawks. 

Kansas went 15-5-3 this season with a 6-4-1 record in the Big 12. Despite their seeding, Kansas doesn't have a super strong resume. Prior to the Big 12 Tournament, they were 0-3-2 against teams ranked at the time, with both draws coming in Lawrence against FSU and West Virginia. They won a pair of ranked games in that Big 12 Tourney, thumping WVU 4-0 and then getting revenge on #11 Colorado for an earlier loss 2-1, before falling to BYU 1-0. 

Kansas defeated California Baptist 3-1 last Friday to advance. Today's match is at 4PM and will be available for streaming on ESPN+. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case