Monday Cardinal Couple - Louisville 73 - LSU 47

SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

TIA'S THREES START CARDS TO 26 POINT WIN

MARYLAND SURPRISES TENNESSEE TO ADVANCE

For the first 7 1/2 minutes of Sunday afternoon's game between LSU and Louisville, it looked like the 'eye of the Tiger' was going to hang close with the Louisville Cardinals in the KFC YUM! Center. Up 12-9 after a Danielle Ballard jumper..her 10th point of the game, LSU was getting a All-American performance out of the sophomore guard.

Then, two things happened. A media timeout and the insertion of Tia Gibbs into the game. Shoni started the Louisville run with two free throws to put the Cards up 13-12. 16 seconds later...Tia buries a three. 35 seconds later... she nails another one.

Make it 19-14 Louisville. Make it ballgame over. A Shoni jumper and Jude three (off a nifty A-Tayy assist) and with eight minutes left...score it Louisville 24-LSU 14.

The Cards would push that advantage to 17 a couple of times in the final eight minutes of the first half and take a 41-23 halftime lead into the locker room.

Holly Rowe tries to explain to Sonja and I why she is
dressed in blue. Excuse denied!  

It was 32-11 over the final 12 minutes of the first half and the crowd of 11097 was going crazy or going to the exits...depending on whether they were wearing red or orange.

- The Cards made seven first half threes...LSU none.

- Louisville was shooting 43% from the floor...LSU 30%

- The Cards had a 12-0 bench advantage in scoring. 

- Louisville held a 9-2 points off turnovers edge.

The LSU fans seated behind us were an obnoxious bunch

Shoni had 14 points and Tia 9. Seven Cards scored in the first twenty minutes. For LSU, it was the Ballard show...she had 14 of the 23 LSU points. Forward Thersea Plaisance had been held to 5 points on 1-5 shooting by Taylor, Hammond and Walton.

LSU would make a last-gap attempt to rally, cutting the Louisville lead to 42-29 with 17:23 to go in the game when Ballard hit a jumper. It just served to get Louisville fired up and the Cards went on a 16-6 spurt which featured two Gibbs threes...the second one making it 58-35 with ten minutes left to play.

At that point, Louisville was 10-26 from trifecta range. LSU was 0-4.

Coach Walz started to rest the starters at that point. He had a lineup of Walton, Henderson, Breedlove, Deines and Smith in the game after Slaughter drained a three to make it 66-40 Cards with 5:35 remaining.

Louie and Mike the Tiger in a dance off. Mike narrowly won.

Shoni led Louisville with 19 points on 6-13 shooting. She also had a team high six assists. Gibbs finished with 15 points...sinking five threes on nine attempts. Nita rounded out the Cardinal double figure scorers with 10. A-Tayy finished with seven points and 10 rebounds. Sara, Jude and "E" tallied five points each. Bria added four and Megan nailed a three for her only score of the game.

Ballard had 24 points for LSU. She also had 24 in the LSU win over WVU.



Tia sinking another three (just out of camera range).

It's Maryland Tuesday night for victorious Louisville. The Terrapins a surprise winner over Tennessee 73-61 in Sunday's opening contest...the Turtles stand in the road of the Cards heading to Nashville for the Final Four. The Terps jumped out to a 6-5 lead four minutes into the first game and built that to a 26-15 advantage halfway through the first twenty minutes. Enjoying a 41-27 halftime advantage...UM had a large group of UT backers in the YUM! left with little to cheer about.

You could sense it was not the Vols afternoon...Thomas seemed to be able to score whenever she wanted against the pourous Tennessee defense and when she was stopped Lexie Brown and Laurin Mincy were there to pick up points. The trio will make Louisville's attempt to gain Final Four status difficult.

The party was over when Maryland was still double-digiting the Vols 67-53 and 4:00 showing on the KFC YUM! Center scoreboard.

The Vols cheerleaders were pretty good...the WBB squad...not so much 

This one was the Alyssa Thomas vs. Meighan Simmons showdown. Thomas had 33 points for Maryland and Simmons ends her college career with 31.

As for Mercedes Russell and Jordan Reynolds...two Vols players that Jeff Walz went after very strongly for the 2013 class...a combined four points in 31 minutes of play. Russell did have a couple of impressive blocked shots. Based on yesterday's performance...which is probably unfair given that Reynolds played huge down the stretch in conference play for UT...Louisville isn't missing a whole lot in not getting the two to sign as Cardinals.

Tennessee is going home. So is LSU. It was a rough day for the SEC Sunday...South Carolina lost also...to North Carolina. Only Texas A&M remains for the SEC.

On a day where fans attending Regional womens' basketball action in Louisville saw three incredible individual performances...it was the team that got solid performances from multiple players that looked the most impressive.

Walz vs. Frese. Former head coach and assistant go to battle to take I-65 South and dance. It should be a great one Tuesday night.

BE there if you can...

Another successful sale on the Unfinished Business trip. The Party-Crashers 2 get a step closer to a return trip to Final Four frenzy.


***************************************************************************

The CARDINAL COUPLE Pick 'Em contest standings:


Paulie             45-11
Curtis F           43-13
Joe Hill
Charlyse          42-14
Blue Lou
Kenny S           41-15
Gary W
Willie Cat Fan  40-16
Sonja
David Watson
Vivian
Worldwide       39-17
Card Chimp      35-21
Jennifer B        34-22
Matt M             27-29
The Other One 26-30




paulie
...
..
.


.

Monday Cardinal Couple - Terrapins next for Lady Cards.

.
MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


-Maryland next challenge for Lady Cards


The University of Louisville women's basketball team will play the #2 seeded Maryland Terrapins Monday night at 7 p.m. in the Comcast Center on the University of Maryland campus in College Park, MD. 


At stake is a trip to the Sweet Sixteen. 

What will Louisville run into tomorrow night? 


First, they're facing a Terrapins team that won the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, NC. - defeating Georgia Tech 68-65 back on March 4th. 


As the automatic bid from the ACC and finishing with a 28-4 regular season record, Maryland received a #2 seed and defeated Navy in 1st round tournament action 59-44 on March 17th. Alyssa Thomas led Maryland with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the outing and Laurin Mincy added 14. 


They also got the advantage of staying home for their first two NCAA games. Home has been good to Maryland this season - they're 14-2 in the Comcast Center - losing to only Virginia Tech and Miami there.

Maryland is on a eight-game winning streak their last loss coming to the aforementioned Miami back on Feb. 12th. Miami beat the Terrapins twice this season and Duke defeated them in Cameron. Three of the losses came by eight points and one by two points (Miami at Comcast). 


Numerous awards for Brenda Frese's players at the end of the regular and conference championship season. 

--Alyssa Thomas - ACC Player of the year, First Team All-ACC and ACC Tournament MVP.
--Tianna Hawkins - Second team All-ACC, ACC All-Tournament team
--Lynetta Kizer - ACC Sixth Player of the Year, All-ACC Honorable Mention. 
--Brene Moseley - ACC All-Freshman Team
--Alicia DeVaughn - ACC All-Defensive team


The Terps have four players that average in double figure scoring...Thomas (17.4), Mincy (12.8), Hawkins (12.0) and Kizer (11.2). Hawkins grabs 9.2 rebounds a game and Thomas 8.1. Maryland's rebounding margin of +14.1 is second in the nation. 


Maryland is also in the top ten in the NCAA in scoring offense, field goal percentage, scoring margin and assists. 

Lofty figures and accolades for Brenda Frese's team. She's been to the Big Dance eight of her 10 years at Maryland...going 17-6. She has three Elite Eights to her credit an a National Championship in 2006. This is the fifth time Maryland has been a #2 seed in the NCAA Women's Tournament under Frese. 


Jeff Walz was an assistant and associate coach for six years under Frese (Five at Maryland and one at Minnesota) and left after the title to take the Louisville job. He is 1-0 against Maryland, defeating them 77-60 back on March 30th, 2009 in the Elite Eight in Raleigh.


What must Louisville do to defeat the Maryland Terrapins? WE'LL offer five categories where the Lady Cards need to do well.


1) Rebound. The Terps are strong on the boards. Louisville must grab missed Terrapin shots, stop second chance opportunities and get put-backs on missed UofL field goal attempts.

2) Shoot well. Over 40% against Michigan State was a good number. The Cards will need to reach that or better to defeat Maryland. Burke needs to be "on" from long range and Schimmel and Smith can't have 3-13 nights.


3) Stop the Terps' inside offensive game. Thomas, Hawkins and Kizer all can go to the basket and score inside. Louisville must prevent the pass into the interior and contest shots that occur from in the paint. The defense has looked good lately for Louisville. It will need to be great tonight.


4) Avoid "dead" stretches. The Cards scored only eight points in the final nine minutes against MSU. That won't cut it against the high-scoring Terrapins. 


5) Create turnovers. The Louisville back-court is just as good, maybe a bit better than Maryland's. The Lady Cards need to apply pressure, get steals and make it difficult for Mincy to score and Barrett to create assists. 


We'll have a full recap of the game after the action tonight and try to provide a halftime report. Be sure to check out CARDINAL COUPLE for the results and analysis of Monday night's game and....GO CARDS!
.
..
...