WBB Hosts South Carolina -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Take On Gamecocks in ACC/SEC Challenge

Louisville will play one of the marquee matchups in the final day of the women's ACC/SEC Challenge tonight, as the #22 Cardinals bring in the #3 South Carolina Gamecocks. The ACC did not have a great night in the first of the two gamedays in this year's version of the event, with the league coming away with just one win in the seven competitions on Wednesday. Syracuse beat Auburn 66-60. Stanford gave Tennessee a good run, but ultimately fell 65-62. NC State took #9 Oklahoma to OT in Norman before losing 103-98. Vanderbilt, UK, Georgia, and Texas A&M beat Virginia, Miami, FSU, and Georgia Tech, respectively. Making matters worse for the ACC is that the undefeated Wake Forest lost at home to William & Mary while Boston College was thumped at home by Quinnipiac. 

While there weren't any ranked vs ranked matchups last night, there will be three big ones tonight. Louisville and SC are in the early slate of games, along with #2 Texas hosting #11 North Carolina. In the 9PM slot, #13 Ole Miss hosts #18 Notre Dame. Clemson takes on Alabama, just as they did on the men's side of the challenge, coincidentally. VT hosts Florida to start the evening at 5PM, Pitt travels to Mississippi State, SMU hosts Arkansas, Duke hosts LSU, and Cal heads to Missouri. The ACC has to win eight of tonight's nine games to win the challenge. That will be a tall task. 

South Carolina is 7-1 in the early going, with their only loss coming in their last game. That was against Texas in the Players' Era Tournament in Las Vegas. Not a bad loss by any stretch of the imagination. They're scoring 89.5 points per game and beating opponents by an average of 36.1. Louisville cannot afford another slow start like they have seen in numerous other games this season. The Cards risk being run out of the Yum! Center in the first half against a team like South Carolina. 

The Gamecocks are led by Joyce Edwards and Ta'Niya Latson, who average 19.6 and 17.1 points per game, respectively. SC has four players averaging double figures, with Madina Okot and Tessa Johnson joining the other two. Raven Johnson, the fifth starter, averages 8.8. The Gamecocks don't go terribly deep in their bench, with their sixth player having just 131 minutes. If Louisville can play fast (but controlled), they may be able to wear down the opponent. 

Louisville is promoting tonight's game as a Stripe Out. I'm not usually a big fan of these, especially when Louisville has struggled to get its fans to take part in full color promotions. The easiest thing to do is provide the shirts, but so it goes. The simple way to put it is that if your ticket is in an odd-numbered section, wear black. If your ticket is in an even-numbered section, wear white. More information is available at this link: Stripe Out Page

Tipoff tonight will be at 7:00PM, and the game will be carried on ESPN. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case