Late run leads Louisville past UNC 75-66 -- Monday Cardinal Couple

15-4 UofL run gives Cards 22nd win

All photos by Charlie Springer. UofLCardgame.com
Be sure to check out Charlie's daily commentary at
www.uoflcardgame.com

With six minutes to go in Sunday's women's basketball game between UofL and UNC, it was anyone's contest. The Cards trailed 62-60 to the TarHeels and a nailbiter finish appeared to be in the offing. 

Two things happened that changed the outcome.

UNC star guard Allisha Gray went to the bench with her fifth foul and the TarHeels stopped scoring. Maybe related? Definitely a turning point. 

Louisville outscored Sylvia Hatchell's squad 15-4 the rest of the way and took  a hard fought 11 point win in ACC play in front of 13115 fans in the KFC YUM Center.


Mariya Moore hit a layup to give Louisville to tie it up and Sherrone Vails gave UofL their first lead since Moore had hit a three just 63 seconds into the game to make it 5-2. 

Emmonnie Henderson followed with a jumper at the 3:32 to make it 65-62 Cards. A Moore jumper stretched the advantage to 67-62. UNC's Stephanie Mavunga would counter inside to close it to 67-64...but the Cards got a inside jumper from Sara Hammond to go up 69-64 with 54 seconds to play and two Jude Schimmel free throws put Louisville ahead by seven with 30 ticks left on the clock.

Game over.

The Cards got four free throws from Moore and Bria Smith late to get to 75 points and beat UNC for the first time in school history. 

The star of this one for the Cards was freshman Mariya Moore. 28 points on 7-17 shooting (including all three Louisville threes) and 11-12 from the charity stripe. Myisha Hines-Allen was the other Cardinal in double figures with 13. Sara Hammond had eight points...six in the second half in a game where the three mentioned took 41 of Louisville's 62 shots and made 17 of UofL's 23 baskets. 

Sit down for this next stat.

Louisville made 26-30 free throws for a 86.7%.


Unfortunately, Louisville was only 1-4 on chances to score after the missed free throw attempts...putting the Walzian Theorem of "3 is better than 2" to a stiff test in this afternoon contest. 

The Cards did go 3-for-2 one time. In the first half Moore was fouled while shooting at 3:11. After a TV timeout she made the first and missed the second. Dyer got the rebound, passed to Moore who missed a 3-pointer, Hammond got the rebound and passed to Moore in the post who made two free throws after being fouled while shooting at 3:02

Sorry, Coach. It was 25% effective today. But, the free throw shooting was divine.

The Cards were tested...big time...for 34 minutes by a Carolina team that outshot Louisville 38.7% to 37.1%, made 12 of their 14 free throws and scored 25 points off 21 Louisville turnovers. The Cards trailed by ten with 7:28 left in the first half and allowed 15 UNC steals and 6 blocked shots. The comeback was great to watch, though...and erased any earlier first half worries about UofL's inside efficiency. 

They play the game for 40 minutes, though...and Louisville got scores from six different players over the final six minutes to win.

Bria Smith might have dug herself a bit out of the Walz doghouse with a useful and effective 15 minutes off the bench with 6-6 free throw shooting and eight points.

Emmonnie Henderson left the game with 30 seconds remaining to a standing ovation with her inspired performance of eight points and six rebounds in 18 minutes. Shawnta' Dyer's nine rebounds and five points helped the Cards out-rebound UNC 47-33 after holding a 23-22 rebounding edge at halftime. 

The Cards are still missing way too many point blank jumpers and putbacks in the paint underneath the basket...but when push came to shove in crunch time against the TarHeels...the Cards went seven for eight from the free throw stripe and hit four of their final eight shots.

And 22-3 and 10-2 in the ACC is a slam dunk...

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LAX BEATS BEARCATS BEHIND KOLOSKI'S SIX PACK

Nikki Boltja's playing days have ended but you can add a

new name to the scoring juggernauts on the Louisville Lacrosse team. Hannah Koloski had six goals in Louisville 17-8 win over Cincinnati Sunday afternoon at the UalofL Lacrosse Stadium. 

The sophomore out of Lakeville, MN. scored the first goal for the Cards against UC and Kaylin Morissette followed to put UofL ahead 2-0 and the Cards got off 28 shots to UC's 5 to hold a 7-3 edge at the half. Koloski had three of the Cardinal scores...Morissette won seven of the 11 draw controls.

The Cards ramped up the offense attack in the final half...scoring four times in the first two minutes on two goals from Koloski and tallies from Morissette and Faye Brust. UC would offer a brief challenge with three straight to cut the Louisville lead to 11-6...but the Cards responded with six out of the next seven scores to lead 17-7. 

Besides Koloski's six pack...Cortnee Daley had five goals and Brust, Morissette and Cat Gordon finished with two each. 

Louisville (1-0) hosts Canisius next...a 1 p.m. draw on Feb. 21st. 

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SOFTBALL FALLS 5-3 IN ORLANDO FINAL

Louisville Softball ended their stay at the Dot Richardson Invitational in Orlando, FL with a 5-3 loss in eight innings to Middle Tennessee State University Sunday morning. 

The Cards ended regulation tied with the Blue Raiders 3-3...getting all three scores in the bottom of the fourth. 

Maryssa Becker began the inning with a fence clearer and the Cards loaded the bases against MTSU after that...pushing home two more runs. 

MTSU countered with three runs in the top of the fifth. 

Louisville put Madi Norman on the mound to start the eighth after Shelby McCombs started the game...going five innings and giving way to Becker's two scoreless innings of relief.

In extra innings, a runner is put at second base to begin the

inning and a MTSU double brought that runner home to make it 4-3 Blue Raiders. Norman would allow one more run before the Cards had a chance to tie in the bottom of the eighth...but UofL would leave two runners on base in taking their second loss in three days.  

The Cards return to Kentucky and will play in the Eastern Kentucky Invitational next week...facing EKU, Kent State and Western Michigan beginning Feb. 21st.   





paulie  

ACC Hoops -- David Watson -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

NO WEAK STOPS -- NO AUTOMATIC WINS


Paulie asked me to fill in for the Sunday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE and it's my pleasure to return to these pages once again.

Ol' Dave has been busy in his retirement.

Chasing white balls down a green fairway, tracking my oldest daughter's field hockey exploits, working with my son's golf game (much to his golf coach's displeasure) and watching my youngest daughter run. And run. 

I admire the dedication in all three. Their quest to rise to the top makes me a proud dad. 

Louisville womens' basketball mirrors the challenges that Abby, Nathan and Celeste have chosen to encounter. Especially this year -- where the old guard (no offense Jude and Bria) is meshing with the next newest and greatest thing. 

It has to be a challenge for Jeff Walz to mix and blend this proliferance of freshmen and seniors -- nine of the 12 currently able to go fall in these two class groups -- and deliver a splendid bakery confection each night. And consider that one of the seniors (Sherrone Vails) played in the 2010-11 season. Shawnta' Dyer would have if it hadn't been for an injury.  Three conferences. 

This mix of young and old is also faced with the advent of being the new kids on the block in the toughest women's basketball conference in NCAA D1. Gone are the pushovers of the AAC and BIG EAST.

Each and every ACC women's basketball team will go into conference play at .500 or better.  

Gone from the CARDINAL WBB schedule is UConn -- that probably doesn't upset anyone. Traded in, though, for Notre Dame. A Notre Dame that led the ACC last year. Yes, UConn handled the Irish pretty well earlier in the season. UConn will handle everyone in the weakened AAC WBB group pretty well this year.

Also back to test the Cards is Syracuse and Quentin Hillsman. This was a fun rivalry when the Cards and Orange were paired up in the BIG EAST. They're 8-3 and losses to Baylor, Michigan State and South Carolina -- three teams that would give the Cards a battle. 

Former conference foe Pittsburgh returns. This isn't Agnes Berenato's BIG EAST doormat anymore. The Panthers are 8-3 and Brianna Kiesel and Monica Wignot could start for any college basketball team. 

Louisville has also had past conference alliances with Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Virginia Tech. Way before the current Walz regime, of course, but Louisville is a just a combined 26-29 against the trio in women's basketball history.

New challenges, new demands. 

Not counting Louisville, four teams in the top 25. A Duke dismantling of Kentucky. Notre Dame at 11-1 and sole loss to UConn. Another 11-1 in North Carolina and the powerful Naismith Trophy watchlist trio of Stephanie Mavunga, Allisha Gray and Xylina McDaniel.

New venues, new opportunities.

January promises to be a whirlwind, non stop Cardinal womens' basketball roller coaster. Eight games -- five in the KFC YUM Center and stops at Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, and Florida State. Five games on national TV. Four Sundays, two Thursdays, a Wednesday and Friday. 

I'm ready. How about you? 


David Watson