ACC WBB Tournament Begins... Lacrosse Hangs on at Vandy... WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

ACC Tournament First Round Begins


                          ************FIRST ROUND UPDATE************

Action from Wednesday ACC Women's Basketball Tournament included three games from the #10 seed to the #15 seed.

#12 North Carolina 69  vs.  #13 Boston College 64

The B.C. Eagles had a horrific shooting first quarter (15.4%) that eventually, in part, cost them the game against UNC. Down 15-6 after 10 minutes, B.C. also had no answer for UNC's Paris Kea, who totaled 10 of her 28 in the first frame. B.C. would battle back to be down just three (31-28) at the half and was within two at 51-49 after Taylor Ortlepp hit one of her seven threes but UNC responded with a 10-0 run after that and went onto the five-point win. UNC gets NC State tomorrow at 11 a.m.


#10 Georgia Tech 61 vs. #15 Clemson 52


An 18-4 start for the Yellow Jackets to begin the game was the difference, as GT went on to the nine-point win. Clemson climbed back into contention several times behind Kobi Thornton and her 13 points, but a 7-0 run by the Ramblin' Wreck to start the second half and 8-3 run to end the game kept the Tigers at bay. Tech got a strong effort from their bench (23 points) and Francesca Pan (18 points) to advance to Thursday action against Virginia tomorrow at 6 p.m.

 #11 Wake Forest 72 vs #14 Pitt 38

Wake was the third team today to come out guns firing and the Demon Deacs led 19-10 after the first period. Pitt only trailed by 10 at the half (32-22) but the Panthers lost their claws in the final session...falling behind 57-27 after three and taking the 34-point loss. I left this one after three to get a good night's sleep and do the recao back at the hotel. It was the largest loss margin in the history of the ACC Tournament. Yacine Diop had 12 first half points for the Panthers...but they were no match for Wake Forest inside. Jen's Hoover's Wake squad advances to meet Miami in the 8 p.m. final Thursday.

Paulie

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The day has come for the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament.  To represent the folks here at Cardinal Couple we have Paulie on his way to Greensboro.  He will be there to cover all games from start to finish.

With their number one-seed Louisville has a couple of days to rest and study film.  They will face the winner of Syracuse and Virginia Tech.  Besides seeing our basketball team down in North Carolina, the cheerleaders, pep band, and mascot will be in attendance.

There are three games for the first round today.  Tournament play begins at 1:00 p.m. when 12-seed North Carolina faces 13-seed Boston College.  The 3:30 p.m. game features 10-seed Georgia Tech and 15-seed Clemson.  11-seed Wake Forest and 14-seed Pittsburgh will conclude the action at 6:30 p.m.

*** Paulie will update this article this evening with updates of the sights and sounds of Greensboro tonight.  I expect that we will be seeing a new photo of Ms. Wuf in the next couple days! ***

CARDINAL COUPLE’S ACC PICK ‘EM Contest

Back by popular demand is the Cardinal Couple ACC Pick ‘Em Contest.  With Paul out of town and Sonya unable to be the judge I have stepped in to help monitor the results this year.  Word on the street is that the winner will be put into a drawing for a $25 Panera Bread gift card.  Free food!

The rules and format are pretty simple.  Just pick the winner of each game.  All entries must be in by 1:00 p.m. today, the same time as tipoff of game one.  Here is an example of a good format to go with:

Jared’s Picks:

Round 1: North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest

Round 2: NC State, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Miami

Round 3: NC State, Louisville, Notre Dame, Florida State

Round 4: Louisville, Notre Dame

Round 5: Notre Dame

*Feel free to give abbreviations such as “UofL” or “ND’”, etc, especially if you are as lazy as I am.

Lax Wins on the Road in Nashville

Ally Hall and Madison Hoover each scored four goals in a win at Vanderbilt.  The Cards topped the Commodores in a high-scoring affair 17-15.

Tessa Chad and Caroline Blalock pulled off hat tricks.  Jillian Balog added a pair of goals and Julia Wood scored a goal.  Emily Howell finished with four assists as she helped corral the offense in an aggressive game plan.

Louisville raced out to a 6-1 lead before the teams traded goals for a while.  Vandy crept back into the game right before halftime.  Their goal with 16 seconds remaining in the half set the score at 10-7.

The Commodores scored a pair of goals right out of the gate in the second half to bring the game to a one goal affair.  The 3-0 run between the two halves were all scored by Vandy’s Kayla Peterson, who finished with eight goals.

The Cards pushed it to a 13-10 lead and eventually 17-11 with 7:37 remaining.  Vandy gave Cards’ fans a scare when the went on a 4-0 run to bring the score to 17-15 with just under two minutes remaining.  UofL played keep away to close out the game to secure the win.

Scott Teeter praised Hoover and Hall in their first breakout performances of the season, “Madison (Hoover) and Ally (Hall) were outstanding for us at the X. They made a lot of plays, a lot of one-on-one plays, they created, and they went hard.”

Teeter and his lacrosse team improve to 5-1 on the year.  The only loss came to the sole ranked opponent the Cards have faced this year, Denver.  Seven of their 10 remaining regular season games are against teams currently ranked in the Top 20.  The lacrosse poll only goes to 20 instead of the normal 25.  Otherwise Louisville would be sitting at #25 in the country as of this past Monday.

They return home to the LLS this Sunday at 1:00 p.m., when they host Notre Dame.  This could be one of two potential Louisville-Notre Dame match-ups on the day.  This one includes free admission and a food truck.  Come on out and cheer the women’s lax team on.

Enjoy your final day of February and Go Cards!

Jared