Elif Istanbulluoglu Named to Turkiye National Team -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

 Senior Forward will play for Turkiye 2026 World Cup Team

Most of our readers are well familiar of how Elif blossomed into one of the Cards WBB best players in the 2025-26 season. She's also been a stellar player in her home country of Turkiye and will be on the 2026 Turkiye National team to compete in the World Cup games. She'll be one of twelve on the squad. 

Last summer she was named a co-captain on the Turkiye squad that competed in the FIBA Eurobasket playoff in Greece. Last year she had the luxury of having Jeff Walz as an assistant coach. She also played on the FIBA U20 squad that played in the Eurobasket cup in Greece for Turkiye.  She led that squad with 17.9 p.p.g and 11.1 rebounds a contest 

The experiences came in handy when she returned to play for the Cards last season. She went from 3.0 p.p.g to 10.1 p.p.g. and was third on the UofL squad with 5.1 rebounds a contest. 

Turkiye will compete in Group C in the World Cup games, along with Belgium, Australia and Puerto Rico. In order to advance to advance to the quarterfinals. A team must finish in the top three of their Group. They;ll play each member of their group once, beginning with Puerto Rico on Sept 4th. 

All of Turkiye's games will be shown on HBO Max. The bundles begin at $10.99 a month. 

paulie

Cards On The Table a fresh look at player interviews -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 EPISODE ONE of CARDS ON THE TABLE AN IN DEPTH DISCUSSION BETWEEN "E", IMARI and TAJIANNA AND MACKENLY

Cards On The Table isn't a new campus game of cards or hijinks in the team's dining area.

What it is..is an nicely moderated discussion with moderator Mackenly Randolph.and three current Cardinals Women's basketball players. Episode One features Elif Istanbulluoglu , Tajianna Roberts,MacKenly  Randolph and Imarr Berry.

Randolph asks the other three players questions and they respond to her. She is a natural for the moderator's role and the players respond well to her and also seem to be having a lot of fun taping the segment. 

It is a unique and well-designed format, where the discussion is free flowing and pretty funny at times...but the over 30 minute production is fast paced and informative. Walz is one of the topics that they discuss. 

One area they talk a lot about is the Versa. To explain it, the Versa is not the phrase "Vice versa" but a piece of equipment workout that involves upper and lower body vertical climbing movements. The low-impact training build high aerobic endurance and muscular strength without heavy joint stress from running. 

Click HERE. for a clip of the Versa Climber. 

This is supposed to be a regular feature that UofL WBB will be doing, and we look forward to the next one. 

paulie 

For Cards, Victory is Sweet -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Defeats Alabama 69-68

via UofL Athletics

It was vindication for Imari Berry Monday afternoon, as she stepped to the free throw line in a two-point game with 8 seconds remaining against Alabama. Similar situations have seen Berry step to the line for critical late-game foul shots twice in the last two months, both against Duke. In early February, Berry made one of two at the line with one second remaining for the Cards to lose by a single point. In the ACC Championship game, Berry again made one of two with 14 seconds left to give the Cards just a two point lead instead of three. Duke made a tying layup and went on to win in overtime. Those situations were top of mind for everyone in the Yum! Center, and if they weren't for people watching the game on ESPN, the announcing crew made sure to remind everyone of them. Whether Berry thought of them at all will forever be a mystery, but she calmly sank both free throws to give the Cards a two-possession lead. Alabama's banked prayer, as a result, made it a one-point game rather than tying, and Louisville survived a buzzer-beating attempt to win by just one point. 

It was an up-and-down affair, with each team trading haymakers during the game. The teams alternated quarter victories, with Louisville losing the final stanza but holding on just enough to win the game outright. Alabama refused to yield, multiple times needing sparks that brought them back into contention when Louisville looked poised to break the game open. The first of those came in the opening quarter. After Louisville turned a 4-6 deficit into a 13-6 lead with two minutes remaining, the Crimson Tide showed the danger of relaxing for just a moment. The Tide ran the shot clock down and Ace Austin nailed a three to make it 13-9. On the ensuing possession, Louisville turned the ball over just beyond mid-court and Laura Ziegler found herself trapped in a 2-on-1 situation. Normally, choosing to defend the easy layup is preferable to stepping out to guard the three-point shooter. When that shooter has just made a clutch three, though, preferences may go out the window. Austin sank her second three in ten seconds and Louisville's lead evaporated. The teams traded baskets and Louisville led 15-14 at the break. 

A frenetic second quarter saw the two teams shoot a combined 16/31 from the floor and 8/16 from three-point land. Unfortunately for Louisville, they were on the losing end of the percentage battle in both categories. Alabama rode a 5/9 performance from beyond the arc to a 21-19 second quarter win and a one-point halftime lead. 

Coach Jeff Walz put some fear into the Cards at halftime, as they were in danger of being upset at home. Louisville responded well. Both teams shot just 2/6 from distance in the third quarter, but Louisville was much more effective inside. The Cards were 9/16 from the floor overall and won the third by six points. Both teams took their first free throws in the third quarter, though Louisville's served as an omen for the remainder of the game. Alabama went 2-2 from the stripe while the Cards missed a pair. Those missed free throws came off the hands of Elif Istanbulluoglu, who entered as 70% foul shooter. Louisville went on to finish 8/16 from the stripe, dropping their season average by an entire percentage point and moving them down 30 spots in that stat category. 

Holly Rowe selfie from 2024-25

The Cards opened the fourth quarter with a 54-49 lead and extended it on an Imari Berry jumper just 15 seconds into the fourth. That pushed Louisville's lead to 56-49 and the crowd was feeling it. The Cards were poised to break the game open, but they failed to capitalize. Louisville had three possessions over the next minute and a half where Alabama remained scoreless, but they failed to extend their lead. That's when the Tide swept through. Alabama went on a 10-1 run, led by a pair of threes from Karly Weathers, to take a 59-57 lead. The crowd was stunned, but Walz let his team play through it. Another missed three late in the shot clock looked like it would give Bama another big momentum builder, but Mackenly Randolph pulled down the offensive rebound and kicked it back out. The ball worked around to Elif, who nailed a three and put Louisville back on top.

Louisville holding their ground despite the big burst from Alabama proved to be the difference. Free throws would have salted the game away, but I already noted that the Cards struggled in that regard. Their next three trips to the line saw them go 1/2 each time, but Alabama continued to miss shots after their big run. With 1:57 remaining, Randolph was sent to the line in a huge spot and knocked down a pair to extend Louisville's lead to 65-61. Louisville's defense stepped up, and a steal in the corner led to a timeout. With 27 seconds on the shot clock, Louisville went to work, using every second they could. Reyna Scott drove with five left, but she was blocked. The ball came back to her and she buried a jumper from just inside the free throw line as the shot clock ran out. 

Michael Hickey | Getty

Louisville looked like they'd put the game away when a jumper was missed by Alabama with 52 seconds left, but the ball bounced around until it was rebounded by the offense. A foul on the attempt gave Essence Cody a pair of free throws, which she sank to keep the lead at just four. Louisville burned the clock down again, but this time Taj Roberts' shot late in the clock failed to reach the rim. The fans erupted when another shot went in as the shot clock horn sounded, but it was ruled a shot clock violation and confirmed on review. Alabama took their final timeout with 19 seconds left, trailing by four. Randolph came up with a huge block on a layup, but Weathers recollected the ball and tipped it in with ten seconds remaining. That set up Berry's redemption story, but the game wasn't quite over. Weathers, who else, made the 30-foot bank shot to keep the Tide alive. Louisville tried to catch Alabama off guard with a quick inbounds to Scott so she could sprint away from defenders, but the plan didn't work. Scott went to the line with 2.3 seconds left and a chance to put the Cards up a full possession. She missed the first. 

The conventional wisdom says you should miss the second to run the clock. Missing a free throw intentionally is difficult. It's also risky. A shot that fails to hit the rim doesn't count, and a shot that hits the rim too hard could lead to a breakaway for the defense. Scott executed the intentional miss well, and the ball bounced down toward the block. Alabama took off down the court and the Cards defended, in my opinion, dangerously closely. You know a desperation heave is coming. A foul on that heave basically loses you the game. Nevertheless, Louisville harassed the ballcarrier just enough for the shot to miss wide of the rim. The play-by-play actually doesn't even indicate the shot, so it may have been waved off. Whatever the decision, the outcome was the same. Louisville survived and advanced. 

The FRED Report

F - Free Throws: Eight of sixteen. It was bad. It was bad before the intentional miss, because 8/15 is still barely over 50%. No letter. 

R - Rebounding: The Cards dominated the boards 41-24. Louisville had two players with double-digit boards as Randolph had 13 and Elif had 11 (double-double with 18 points). Ziegler added eight, while Weathers was the top rebounder for Alabama with just five. The Cards used that advantage to double up on the Tide in second chance points, which was critical. Capital 'R'. 

E - Effort/Execution: Louisville shot just 45% from the floor and 27% from three. However, they didn't yield. Even when minor lapses saw Alabama erase big leads, the Cards stayed focused on the goal, and they did just enough to get the win. Louisville did lose the turnover battle 15-13 and the points off turnovers battle 15-10, though, so I can only give a lowercase 'e'.

D - Defense: The Cards had just seven steals and Alabama shot 45.6% from the floor and 46.2% from three. You might think that's an easy knock on the defense, but Louisville held the Tide to under 50% from two and just 24 points in the paint. They sent Alabama to the line only twice, making the 100% free-throw shooting virtually useless. They also held the Tide below their scoring average, so I'm going to grant a lowercase 'd'. 

A final tally of _-R-e-d won't win many awards, but it did the all important thing of winning this game. 

Louisville advances to the Sweet Sixteen for the 13th time under Coach Jeff Walz. Those 13 appearances under Walz represent every appearance in program history. The Cards will now travel to Fort Worth for the next round (or two) of the NCAA Tournament. Louisville will face the two-seed, Michigan, who dispatched NC State by a whopping 29 points on Sunday. The Cards have won the last five matchups against the Wolverines, but the two teams last met in 2022. The Sweet Sixteen game will be played at 12:30 on ABC.

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Cards Crush Panthers -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Elif Scores Career High in 91-38 Win

A three-pointer by Tiny Lewis cut the Eastern Illinois deficit to one at 13-12 with 3:27 remaining in the first quarter. The Panthers had held close to Louisville for the first portion of the opening stanza, but that would be the end of that. Louisville closed the first on an 8-0 run to win the quarter by nine and won each subsequent quarter by no fewer than 13 points. Louisville's offense was largely consistent quarter-to-quarter (21, 26, 22, 22), while the defense held EIU to fewer points each quarter (12, 11, 9, 6). All in all, it was an expected thumping, as the loss moved Eastern Illinois to 0-6 on the season and the win took the Cards to 5-2. 

After the first six minutes or so, Louisville was never really troubled in this one. It might even be fair to say that they weren't particularly troubled at the beginning, despite the surprisingly close score. Once the Cards settled in, they had it fairly well under control. Walz was able to clear the bench and play 12 players, and, for the second time this season, every player that saw the floor scored a point. What's more, every player scored a field goal. The Cards were led by Taj Roberts, who scored 13, while Elif Istanbulluoglu and Mackenly Randolph tied at second with 12. The 12 points were a career high for Elif, who added six rebounds, an assist, two blocks, and two steals. The total was also Randolph's season high, and it missed her career high by one point (13 against Duke last season). 

Reagan Bender also had a nice night. Her career high is also 13, and she only scored eight in last night's game, but she added five rebounds, four assists, and five steals. The phrasing ends up coming off as a bit of a joke, but being halfway to a quadruple-double is nothing to scoff at. Bender did all this in a career-high night in minutes, as she led the team with 24. In addition to minutes, last night set career highs in field goal attempts, makes, rebounds, assists, and steals. Anaya Hardy had another double-double in 21 minutes, putting up 12 rebounds to go along with 11 points. She also had two steals. 

All in all, there isn't a whole lot more to say. Eastern Illinois is not a good team, so winning by 50+ points shouldn't be a great surprise. Getting a solid performance from everyone is quite nice, though, and you look for that in games like last night's. That said, the team wasn't as locked in as they could have been, which we'll cover up next in The FRED Report, but they still had an enjoyable Black Friday and will be set up for another big day today. 

The FRED Report

F-Free Throws: If there was one spot Louisville came up short (other than turnovers), it was free throws. The Cards got to the line quite a bit, earning 25 attempts, but they hit on just 17 of those. Louisville had no perfect quarters, and Taj Roberts went 0-2 at the stripe. Those last two stats are just icing on the bad cake, since a 68% qualifies for no letter all on its own. 

R-Rebounds: Louisville may not have had the tallest player on the floor (EIU had someone at 6'10"), but the Cards were the bigger and more physical team on average. They showed it, cleaning up 46 rebounds, compared to 34 for the Panthers. Louisville had 20 offensive rebounds and scored 19 second chance points. They held EIU to just nine o-boards. Capital 'R'. 

E-Effort/Execution: The final point total is nice. It's hard to score 91 points, though maybe not incredibly difficult when the opponent gives you as many chances as EIU did. Still, Louisville shot 46% from the floor and 35% from three. They assisted on 20 of their 33 makes. The big issue here is the turnovers. Louisville had 15, and I can't give a capital letter for that. Lowercase 'e'. 

D-Defense: Louisville's defense, as I mentioned earlier, got stingier as the game went on. They allowed just 38 points, fewer than ten per quarter, and they picked up 17 steals. They also had three blocks and forced a total of 31 turnovers. Yeah, I'm gonna go with a capital 'D'.

If you're going to have an off night at the free throw line, it's best to do it when you win by a million points, I suppose, but the turnovers were unfortunate. Louisville finishes with a final tally of _-R-e-D. Daryl will love that, since her favorite Louisville chant is "Go Big Red." (Sarcasm very much intended.) The Cards will be back in action today when they take on East Tennessee State. Today's game will be at 3:30, and it will be held in Knights Hall on Bellarmine's campus. Because it's at Bellarmine and not hosted by UofL, this game will be on ESPN+ instead of ACCNX. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Report on Turkey women's national basketball team -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 TURKEY NARROWLY LOSES TO ITALY TO GO TO 2-1

They went to overtime, in this battle of two undefeated squads in the European Euroleague women's basketball quarterfinals, but Italy prevailed over Jeff Walz, Elif Istanbulluoglu and the Turks 76-74 in quarterfinal action. The loss drops the Turks to 2-1 in Group A and they are tied for fifth among the 16 teams participating. 

Elif, a 6'2" power forward on the Turkiye senior squad, hasn't exactly been leading the squad, but has played twice, according to the FIBA stats..with two points in two games. she did not see the court in the loss to Italy. One has to do a lot of searching to find the information on the European results and get a box score, I discovered, in the preparation of today's article

France leads Group A at 3-0, followed by 2-1 Turkey, 1-2 Greece and 0-3 Switzerland. 

Italy leads Group B at 3-0, Belgium leads Group C at 3-0 and Spain leads Group D at 3-0. 

Turkey defeated Greece and Switzerland before losing to the Italians. 

The 16 teams that compete in the league are Turkey, Italy, France, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Portugal, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Great Britain.

The Turkey team also has on the roster a name Cardinals fans will remember in Teaira McCowan.She played at Mississippi State. She left the WNBA's Dallas Wings temporarily, as did a few other WNBA players, to go play in Europe, but will rejoin them when the tournament is over. We follow the Wings fairly closely here at Cardinal Couple since Myisha Hines-Allen and Paige Bueckers play for them, but...they are just 3-12 on the season, tied for the worst record in the league. 

Good luck to all our former D! American players in the FIBA games. 

paulie

Istanbulluoglu and Walz Joining Turkiye Women's National Team -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Elif to Play and Walz to Help Coach

Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz and current player Elif Istanbulluoglu have been selected to be a part of the Turkiye Women's National Team for 2025 FIBA Women's Eurobasket. Elif is one of 17 players named to the roster. Walz was named an assistant coach. The event will be held from June 18-29 and will take place in Czechia, Germany, Italy, and Greece.

Elif is a rising junior for Louisville. She saw an increased role during her sophomore campaign, averaging 10 minutes per game and seeing action in all 33 games. She averaged 3.0 points per game and 2.0 rebounds per game and had a strong shooting percentage of .442 field goal percentage.

Walz has been the head coach for Louisville for 18 seasons. He has amassed 486 wins and boasts an impressive .769 win percentage. Walz has guided Louisville to all four of their Final Four appearances in program history.

While the 2025-2026 Louisville women's basketball schedule has not been released yet, we know for certain that the Cards will host both South Carolina and Kentucky this season. With Monique Reid assuming the head coaching duties at Bellarmine, we hope to see a crosstown rivalry scheduled either as an exhibition or as a regulation game.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Academic Accolades and Softball Final Series -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB Lands 8 on ACC Academic Team

Louisville women's basketball continued a tradition we've grown accustomed to in covering Louisville women's athletics, which is performing well off the court in addition to on it. This trend was kept up with the announcement of the 2025 All-ACC Academic Team by the conference earlier this week. Jeff Walz's squad placed eight on the team. As a unit, Louisville WBB posted a 3.37 GPA as a team in the fall semester. They had 12 team members earn at least a 3.0, 11 with at least a 3.25, and one pick up a perfect 4.0. 

All-ACC Academic Team honorees must post a 3.0 GPA for the previous semester and maintain a 3.0 cumulative GPA over the course of their collegiate career. They must also compete in at least 50% of the team's athletic contests. Louisville had three freshmen on the team, all obviously picking up their first honor: Isla Juffermans, Mackenly Randolph, and Taj Roberts. Three players earned their second honor: Jayda Curry, Elif Istanbulluoglu, and Ja'Leah Williams. And two players earned their All-ACC Academic Team placement: Merissah Russell and Nyla Harris. 

Congratulations to all as commencement is just around the corner for UofL's Spring 2025 graduates.

Softball Takes on Pitt in Regular Season Finale

Louisville softball, as is tradition, is on the road for their final series of the regular season, with the Cards heading to Pittsburgh for a Thursday-Friday-Saturday matchup with the Panthers. Today's series opener will get underway at 6PM and air on ACC Network Extra. With their win over Florida State on Sunday, the Cards did a lot to improve their ACC tournament positioning. That is to say, Louisville is almost guaranteed to make the ACC tournament. 

Louisville sits at 7-14 in conference play, which is good for 10th. As a reminder, 12 teams make the tournament. The Cards need to only be ahead of three opponents to lock up the 12th spot. Two of the teams below them in the standings cannot improve. Notre Dame and NC State have already completed their regular season, with the Irish at 7-17 and the Wolfpack at 6-18. Louisville holds the tiebreaker over Notre Dame. Syracuse and Pittsburgh both have six wins, so a sweep by both of those teams would move them ahead of the Cards. That would leave Boston College. BC has five wins, and Louisville holds the tiebreaker. For BC to jump the Cards, Pitt would have to sweep, but so would BC. The Eagles are taking on Stanford this weekend.

With one win against the Panthers, who are 19-29 overall, Louisville would secure its spot in the tournament. Effectively, they're playing for seeding and a chance to try to make enough noise to land an NCAA berth. I'm sure there is no love lost between Coach Holly Aprile and her former team, though she has been at UofL long enough that no players from her time at Pitt remain on the roster. The Cards are 27-6 all-time against Pittsburgh and 8-2 in their last ten meetings. Unfortunately, five of those six losses have come on the road. Louisville would do well to ride their momentum from Sunday's big win to close out the regular season strong and then see what happens going forward. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Elif Istanbulluoglu Could Be Front Line Force for Cards WBB in 2024-25 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

Turkish Star set for sizzling sophomore year. 

One of the more pleasant surprises in the 2023-24 UofL WBB season was the emergence of front line factor Elif Istanbulluoglu. Her freshman season was an impressive start, she played in all 34 UofL WBB contests, and drew two starts. In the Cards NCAA contest against MTSU, she scored seven points and had a three in her first ever NCAA Tournament action.  

She had a double-double in her third-ever collegiate game, with 10 points and 12 rebounds in the win over Bellarmine.  She recorded her career high points total against Boston College with 11 points. 

This summer she's with the Turkiye squad in the U 20 squad and is a starter for the team where Jeff Walz is an assistant coach.  They recently beat Lativa by 20 points for seventh place in the euroBasket U 20's. She;s averaged 20 points and eight rebounds in U20 play and is consdered one of the top five players in the Euros Round of 16

The european leagues are no stranger to Elif...she played for the FIBA Fenerbache squad that won the Turkish U20 euros for the first time in team history last summer. 

Her game is multi-purpose...she can score both inside and out, and at 6'3" that's a nice card to have in your hand. She also showed a sense of toughness and passion for the Cards, another valuable thong to possess in the ACC. 

Elif's older sister Sevval

She comes from a basketball family. Both her parents played in the Turkish leagues and her older sister, Sevval, started for four years at Siena. 

With Elif and returnees Nyla Harris and Olivia Cochran, plus several and talented freshmen and redshirt freshmen on the roster, the Cards should be one of the top rebounding teamsin the conference this season. Jayda Curry and Merissah Russell returning at the guard spots gives Louisville WBB a sold core of players for 2024-25....plus the influx of transfer guard Ja'Leah Williams out of Miami (FL) and four talented freshmen guards, including five star Imari Berry.

Remember them? 

A first glance indicates the Cards should be a deep and strong team and 2024-25 should be a fun and productive season for Louisville WBB.

paulie

WBB Dumps Demon Deacons -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Remain Undefeated in ACC

After a less than stellar first quarter, which Olivia Cochran attributed postgame to low energy by the team all week long, Louisville broke the game open in the second and went on to beat Wake Forest 83-62. On a day that saw Florida State knock off Virginia Tech in Tallahassee, Louisville's win moves them to the top step all alone as the only undefeated team in the ACC. As Cochran, Nyla Harris, and Jeff Walz all agreed after the game: any team can have your number on any given night in this league. The Cards will learn from today's win and look to stay atop their new perch.

As I mentioned, Louisville's start was rather sluggish. The Cards got off to what looked like a fast start, with O scoring the game's first points just ten seconds in. A Wake Forest miss prompted Daryl to lean over and suggest Louisville may jump out to a 10-0 lead as they did in the last game. I was less convinced, seeing as the Deacs appeared to reach the basket quite simply despite the miss. Sydney Taylor was sent to the line on Louisville's second possession and hit one of two free throws. Misses bookended the Cards' 11 free throws in the first half as they made nine in a row starting with Taylor's second. 

As it turned out, I was right about Louisville's inability to repeat their previous game's start. Cochran made two free throws after a Wake jumper before the Demon Deacons' first three of the game tied it at five. It seemed a bit of a sloppy start defensively, but the Cards seemed to turn it around with a steal leading to a fast break layup followed by a forced bad shot at the end of the shot clock. Unfortunately, that wasn't quite the case. Wake Forest kept at it, heading to the line for six free throws (hitting all of them) and shooting 3-8 from behind the arc (2-3 inside it) to finish with 19 points. The Cards could force just five turnovers, equaling the number they committed, and scored only 20 points of their own. The quarter ended rather unfortunately, with Louisville looking to score the last basket of the stanza to go up by six or seven and instead giving up a steal that led to a buzzer beating three at the other end. The shot was quite ugly, and banked in, but it was well before the clock hit zero. The real question was whether or not the shooter's foot was on the line, and the refs headed to the monitor. With it being called a three on the floor, the replay couldn't overturn it and the quarter ended 20-19.

The second quarter was the one Walz said he'd like the team to find more consistently. It was one like the fourth quarter of the Pitt game, and it put the game rather out of reach. Louisville improved on their 5/12 shooting with a 9/16 performance, knocking down three 3s and turned it over just twice. Defensively, the effort was much better as well. Wake took just two free throws and shot just 3-11 from the floor and was 0-4 from beyond the arc. The Cards forced seven turnovers and won the quarter 26-8. Honestly, there isn't much more to say about the second. Louisville dominated the quarter the way they should have dominated the game. It was fun to watch and the team clearly fed off the crowd's energy. A 46-27 halftime score looked much more impressive than the score at the quarter break. 

Louisville returned somewhere to the middle in the third quarter. They once more scored 20 points, matching the first quarter mark, but allowed Wake to find a bit more offense with 14. The Demon Deacons shot an even 40% from the floor and behind the three-point line, while Louisville shot over 50% for the second quarter in a row. The Cards were 2-2 from three, but slipped a bit from the free throw line with just a 4-7 performance. Louisville's lead was never really threatened, as the closest Wake could get was within 16 points. The Cards pushed that lead to its peak on a bit of a goofy play. 

As the clock ticked down, Louisville's pep band initiated a fake countdown to throw off the Wake offense. As the band got down below five, Jayda Curry slipped the ball from Wake's Kaia Harrison. With momentum on their side, the band didn't quite stop counting. In their efforts to confuse Wake, the band appeared to confuse Curry as she launched a shot from midcourt and the band shouted one. I feel quite confident that Curry may have been a bit irritated when she looked up to follow the ball to see four seconds remaining on the clock. Walz later said that Curry has been putting in the work in the gym to get up shots and when you put the work in in the gym, sometimes that work pays off with luck going your way. Such was the case as the ball went in to give Louisville a 25-point lead heading into the fourth.

The fourth quarter was one to forget. It prompted notes from both Nyla Harris and Jeff Walz in their post game comments about not letting mistakes snowball. Walz worked to get the bench more minutes, causing -22.5 bettors to sweat all the way to their loss. Hennie van Schaik returned to the floor with six minutes played in the fourth quarter. While those minutes looked to start off great with a block/steal, they soured immediately as she threw the ball immediately to the lagging Wake defender. The turnover was the first of six for Louisville in the fourth quarter. They entered that fourth quarter with just 10 in the game. Walz noted after the game that there are some turnovers you just have to live with. He specifically called out a travel that came after an offensive rebound amidst three defenders. The only way to avoid that turnover is to not get the offensive rebound, which isn't something he wants to coach. Those kinds of turnovers are ok. The kind that opened the fourth quarter and was repeated twice later in the quarter are not.

Louisville still shot 47% from the floor in the fourth and were 2-3 from three (including Elif Istanbulluoglu's second three of the year). However, Wake's shooting was made simpler with Louisville's turnovers and they were 53% from the floor. They had just two turnovers in the quarter and outscored the Cards 21-17. Walz appeared ok with the result, despite the turnovers, as he was able to get quality time for more players. Every player dressed played with HVS totaling the fewest minutes. Alexia Mobley was the only other player with single digit minutes, finishing with nine. Everyone else played at least 17 minutes. That kind of court time is invaluable with the team still working to find themselves and build on their cohesion. Olivia reminded us after the game that they were just getting started and we would see plenty more as they continued to gel. 

In the end, a 21-point win is nothing to shrug at. Louisville was balanced offensively once more, with six players in double figures. Rebounds were spread out as well, with all but one player snagging at least one board and no player grabbing more than five. Jayda Curry and Olivia Cochran led the team with 12 points apiece, while Taylor scored 11 and Harris, Kiki Jefferson, and Merissah Russell all added 10. Elif put up nine of her own. Notably, Harris was 5-5 from the floor and Cochran and Jefferson were a combined 10-10 from the line. 

A game recap isn't complete without a FRED Report, though I'll spare you the CASE Report this time. 

F - Free Throws: Despite a hot start in this category, sitting at 9-10 at one point, Louisville hit just five of their remaining ten foul shots, finishing 14-20. That's 70%, good for a lowercase f. 

The CC Crew's execution wasn't lacking.
This picture took significant effort
due to the commitment of the refs
and/or cheerleaders to prevent
it by getting in the way.

R - Rebounds: Louisville had a size advantage in this game, but it didn't exactly show on the boards. Louisville had a three-rebound advantage in each half, and they were outscored in second chance points despite pulling down more offensive rebounds. I'll still award a lowercase r for a six-board win, but I'll note that I contested it internally.

E - Effort/Execution: Sixteen turnovers isn't great. Even with the ones Walz noted are livable, you'd like to see the number come down, especially with the lapses in the fourth quarter. However, after the slow start to the game, the Cards never seemed to be sleepwalking. They worked for loose balls and rebounds, even if they didn't pull them down or had slips on defense. I'll award a lowercase e here, with the caveat that it's based almost entirely on effort. The execution was lacking.

D - Defense: Wake scored 62 points, which isn't great, but 40 of those came in the first and fourth quarters. Louisville's defense was mercurial, sometimes looking stifling and others looking lost. The Demon Deacons shot 43% from the floor, and at least part of that was because Louisville players missed the scout. They and Walz both said so. For that reason, no letter. 

That's a final of f-r-e-_. Louisville will need to do better as they hit the road for games against Clemson and UNC. The bad thing is that it's a bit of a short turnaround to get the issues fixed. The good thing is that they're aware they need to fix them. Hopefully the Cards will take their off day to celebrate a win and being in the lead of the conference before locking in on Tuesday and Wednesday to hold that lead. Louisville is back in action Thursday night against Clemson on ACC Network Extra. Tip off is at 7PM.

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case