Finals Week at UofL -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Good morning readers and happy hump day!!

It's Daryl checking in with you midweek as Paul and I traded places on our writing days to accommodate some of life’s happenings.

It’s that time of year that everything seems to speed up and slow down at the same time. Parents are shopping, students are wrapping up the semester and then there’s the rest of us just trying to maintain the requirements of adulting.

Finals are scheduled to take place in the coming week. Good luck to all the students and athletes!

There were no Cardinals games yesterday and none today so we are just taking the time to breathe and get ready for what’s next as a program.



Volleyball

Volleyball is getting ready to head to the Sweet 16 for the ninth time in program history.

The Cards are scheduled to face off with #3 Creighton at noon on Thursday at 12pm.

This one will be available to watch on ESPN2.

Outside hitter Anna DeBeer was voted East Region Player of the Year by the AVCA. The Cardinals placed six players on the First Team All-East Region: Cara Cresse, Anna DeBeer, Elle Glock, Aiko Jones, Charitie Luper and Elena Scott. Phekran Kong was named to the Honorable Mention All-East Region squad.



WBB

And then we have the WBB squad who is preparing for the Battle of the Bluegrass on Sunday afternoon. The Cats are not looking like the nationally ranked squad we’ve seen in recent years as they went on a 5 game losing streak to some questionable opponents. While its not nice to laugh at other’s misfortunes, this is one where we will make an exception. I wont tell Santa Claus if you wont… but I hope the Cards pour in on them and win by 40. No mercy!!

The Cats play Minnesota tonight, if you want to get a pre-game scout on them. The catch is...it's on SECN+, which islike our ACCN+, you goyya pay for the privledge..

Good luck again to the Cardinals this week, on the courts and in the classroom.


As Always

Go Cards!

~Daryl

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE UofL advances to Great Eight...Clark-Heard headed to WKU...A WBB Sweet Sixteen preview

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FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


-UofL defeats #1 seed Michigan State to advance to Great Eight


-Michelle Clark-Heard accepts head coaching job at Western Kentucky.


-NCAA WBB Sweet Sixteen starts Saturday


How about the University of Louisville men's basketball team! Advancing to the Great Eight in the NCAA Tournament with a 57-44 win over #1 seed Michigan State Thursday night. 

Chane went insane in the final
twenty for the CARDS! 

I know, CARDINAL COUPLE is primarily a women's sports site and there will be about a gazillion articles out there about this win...but we're proud of the guys and how about freshman Chane Behanan tonight for Pitino's players? Huge second half for the Bowling Green/Cincinnati guy and Gorgui Dieng with what seemed like a dozen blocked shots.


 L1C4, baby!  


A month ago, few would have predicted this run for UofL. Reeling from defeats and seemingly having no dependable scorers on the squad, the Cards have come together and are on a seven game win streak. Sweet revenge over a MSU squad who knocked the Cards out of the running for the Final Four a couple of years ago. 


A big salute, fellas, from CARDINAL COUPLE and keep it going. Louisville faces Florida at 4:30 Saturday for a chance to go to New Orleans and the Final Four. Pitino vs. Donovan. Should be great! 


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Michelle Clark-Heard has been named the newest head women's basketball coach at Western Kentucky University. The Cardinal assistant was with Jeff Walz for the past five years at UofL and head coach at Kentucky State for two years before that. 

She faces a rebuilding job in Bowling Green...but she is widely known out on the recruiting circles and should be able to land some of Kentucky Girls High School's best to play for her and the Toppers. 


WE'VE watched Michelle run practices before at UofL and there is no doubt that she knows the game and how to get the most out of the players while teaching them important fundamentals at the same time. She's the second Walz assistant to leave the next and take a head coaching job. We love her self-stated philosophy on basketball...get the ball and get down the court and score. 


WE hate to see her go..but are happy and proud that she's back in the main spotlight again. She's the second assistant that has left the Walz nest and gone off to build her own. That speaks volumes about the success of the program and the genius of Jeff. 


Congratulations, Michelle. Now, get Louisville back on that Hilltopper schedule! 


LINK below.
Michelle Clark-Heard named head WBB Coach at WKU

Also, a clip of her acceptance ceremony below:


Clark-Heard is introduced and speaks at WKU

(Thanks to our readers for providing these links!) 


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The field of sixteen teams that have advanced in the NCAA Women's College Basketball tournament has quite a few expected attendees and a few surprises. 


WE take a look at the finalist and give a little commentary on who will get to the Great Eight in the games being played in Des Moines, Fresno, Raleigh and Kingston over Saturday and Sunday.


BAYLOR VS GEORGIA TECH 

The Baylor Lady Bears are the #1 team in the country. They have the probable player of the year in Brittany Griner. They haven't lost yet in 36 games. We don't see that changing yet. Georgia Tech has had an easy path to the Sweet Sixteen with wins over Sacred Heart (how a Louisville Catholic girls high school got in there..we'll never know) and a Georgetown team that had underachieved the last half of the season. Baylor fans will travel en masse to Des Moines...and they won't be disappointed. 


KANSAS VS TENNESSEE

Our bracket predictions were way off in this one...expecting to see DePaul and Delaware square off in this one. Give Kansas credit. They come out of an #11 seed and from a tough WBB conference in the BIG 12. They got it done against Nebraska and knocked off Elena Della Donna and Delaware to earn their spot. They face a Tennessee team on a mission, though, and the Lady Vols have taken care of business impressively so far against high-scoring UT-Martin and DePaul. The Lady Vols should continue to put notches in the "W" column and most likely head to the Great Eight and Baylor


STANFORD VS SOUTH CAROLINA

Stanford is Sonja's pick to win the NCAA WBB Tournament and they haven't disappointed so far with a convincing win over Hampton and out-muscling WVU. The Ogwumike sisters are a great one-two punch and they should breeze against a South Carolina team that surprised us by getting as far as they did. Give Dawn Staley a lot of credit for getting the Gamecocks this far...they handled E.Michigan and Purdue. Grant, Stevens and Brewer are great players..but the bus stops here for the SEC school. 


ST. JOHN'S VS DUKE

BIG EAST regular season runner-up St. John has talent, speed, great team play, Nadirah McKenith and an excellent coach in Kim Barnes Arico. They survived a close scare against Creighton and looked good against Oklahoma. They face a Duke team that has been dominant in the tournament and may have the best freshman center in the nation in Elizabeth Williams. Wins over Samford and Vandy came easily -- even in 90 degree heat in Nashville. They'll face a much tougher task in St. John's and we see this one as too close to call. I like the Red Storm...Sonja says Duke.


NOTRE DAME VS ST.BONAVENTURE

We're seeing the Irish as a Final Four team and we've raved about Diggins, Novosel, Peters, Mallory and the rest of Muffet McGraw's team all season. They've been their usual outstanding juggernaut so far against Cal and Liberty and should handle the upstart Bonnies of St. Bonaventure. Gotta admire what St. Bonaventure has accomplished so far in the tournament..but this isn't Florida-Gulf Coast or Marist that they'll meet in Raleigh. 


TEXAS A&M VS MARYLAND

Another one that we feel is too close to call. Maryland escaping against an inspired Louisville squad after sinking the Navy. Texas A&M is the defending NCAA Champs and after abolishing Albany they had their hands full with Arkansas...escaping at the buzzer. We like the play of Laurin Mincy and Brenda Frese is a quality coach. We also expect Alyssa Thomas to have a much better game than she had against the Cards. Sydney Carter gets the job done for the Aggies and this one just might go to the final buzzer. 


CONNECTICUT VS PENN STATE.

Geno has the Huskies rolling...winning the BIG EAST Tournament and romping over Prairie View and Kansas State in the NCAA Tournament. We see them putting a pretty significant beating on the Nittany Lions in Kingston. Penn State has had a nice run in knocking off UTEP and LSU...but we felt they were over-ranked as a #4 seed and they'll travel back to Happy Valley after Saturday's game...not so happy.


KENTUCKY VS GONZAGA

UK has had a roller coaster NCAA Tournament ride so far...struggling against #15 seed McNeese State and getting very lucky to advance against Green Bay. But, they keep winning. Gonzaga surprised some by knocking off Rutgers and then sending Miami back to the beach...they must be respected and we can see this being another game that could be undecided with a minute to go. A'dia Mathies is, by far, the best player on the court in this one. We'll go with the underdog here, though. One has to advance to the Great Eight, right? The Zags get lucky against Kentucky. Cardinal fans know all about the Zags in post-season play. Even though this one isn't in Spokane, we can see the Bulldogs barking one last time in the Sweet Sixteen.
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Cougars bring 6-4 record, challenging schedule into tonight's game

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Cougars face 10-2 Lady Cards in Pullman, WA.

-Recapping Sunday's BIG EAST action

-Sandy Walker discusses a "foul" subject

The Lady Cards conclude the west coast trip this evening with a 9 p.m. tipoff (E.S.T.) against the Washington State Cougars. WSU (6-4) comes into the game on a two game win streak and it is the final of four in a row at home for the Cougars. They've defeated UC-Riverside and San Diego St. in their last two.

Carly Noyes (right) is a 6'5"
junior center for the Cougars

WSU has faced a challenging non-conference schedule while building their 6-4 record. They've also defeated UNC WIlmington, Wisconsin, MARQUETTE (65-52), and Prairie View A&M this season. Losses have come to Penn State, South Dakota State, MIchigan (69-39) and a narrow 71-69 loss to Gonzaga. After Louisville, they'll conclude their non-conference slate with a trip to Ohio State.

Daughtery also had previous stints at
Boise State and Washington. She digs the
northwest...

The Cougars are coached by June Daughtery. She's in her fifth season at Pullman and has a record of 38-93 as the WSU head coach. They're 2-1 at home this year. Her husband Mike, is an assistant coach.

No Cougars are averaging in double figures.

Soph. guard Ireti Amojo ( a play-by-play announcer's dream name for a player) has nine points a game, junior center Carly Noyes checks in with 8.2, Tia Presley is good for 8.1 and Sage Romberg at 8.0. Jasmine Perkins leads WSU with 6.5 grabs a game.

Louisville and Washington State have never met before.

For the Lady Cards, it'll be a matter of another "home game" on the road, since it's Native American Appreciation Night and Schimmel fans will flock to see the girls in their last Northwestern U.S. appearance of the regular season. Louisville will look to continue the impressive defensive performance that they threw down on the Portland Pilots on Saturday...when the kept the Coogs from scoring a basket for nearly 13 minutes in the first half. They could have their hands full with the 6'5" Noyes on the boards and road fatigue could be a possible issue for the jet-lagged Cards...who are off for nine days after tonight's contest.

WKRD 790 will have the call in the Louisville area, WSU's official sports website offers a pay-per-view of the match and Gametracker will be a step slow and a half hour behind in giving reports on the action. 

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Cats lost their claws when A'dia
fouled out.

 BIG EAST women's basketball went 4-1 yesterday...with UCONN falling to the Baylor Bears 66-61. Winners were Notre Dame over Kentucky 92-83, St John, with a 64-60 triumph over Memphis, Rutgers easily handled Iona 62-29 and Syracuse (not Georgetown, like we reported yesterday) squared off against Xavier and took the win 70-67.

Would these "Young Guns" fared any better than UCONN
did against Baylor?

The UConn-Baylor contest was an exciting one...the Huskies looked like they were in control with a 10 point second half lead but the Bears, led by Odyssey Sims and Brittany Griner came roaring back, buoyed by their home crowd support, and took the win. WE actually had turned it off for a few minutes (Paul and his love for the Emilio Estevez "Young Guns" movies) and were shocked to find Baylor back in it. Is there a better center in WBB College than Griner? 

UK lost A'dia Mathies to fouls in the second half and watched Notre Dame go on a 10-0 run to pull away from a stubborn, overachieving UK squad in South Bend. WE had talked about how we thought the UofL inside game was superior to UK's a few weeks back. We were wrong and we admit it. Drake, and now Samari Walker, will punish SEC competition. As for Notre Dame, we called it right...Novosel applied the novocaine to the Kats. 23 points, one of five Irish in double figures.

ON TAP TONIGHT:

--SYRACUSE vs. Oklahoma ("Q" gets his Sooner on...)
--PROVIDENCE hosts Delaware (The big girl..Elena Delle Donne..has the Blue Hens at 8-0)
--CINCINNATI at home against Indianapolis (no, in WBB...not NFL)
--DEPAUL travels to Illinois State. (But, they're from Illinois, the state.)
--MARQUETTE invites SDSU to Milwaukee. (That's the South Dakota State Jack-Rabbits)

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(Sandy Walker is a contributing writer for CARDINAL COUPLE. She looks at foul strategy today.)

FOUL STRATEGY

Is benching a player after two first half fouls
for the rest of the half the right thing to do?

Last night I watched a college game where, once again, players were benched after picking up their second foul of the first half. What had been a multiple lead-changing game changed into a half-time six point deficit after two starters were sat down for committing two fouls each. I'm guessing that a lot of the CARDINAL COUPLE readers are younger than me, so you can be forgiven for not remembering far back enough into basketball history when after two fouls, you might sit a player long enough to calm them down and think it over a bit...but that player would re-enter and play in the first half until they picked up a third foul.

(Please share your comments and any education you have on this subject with me, either in the comments section or by e-mail to Cardinal Couple.) 

NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy, who was calling the game, said:

"Smart players have to be able to learn to play with fouls."

How does this happen while sitting on the bench? When did this "shifting of strategy" occur and  why is a player sitting on the bench in the first half with two fouls contributing more to their team than the same player sitting on the bench with five fouls in the second half?

(PAUL)
I'll take a crack at addressing this one with my own opinion. Never been a fan of sitting a player with two first half fouls. Maybe because I was a fouling machine when I played. But, if you are a good player and are important to your team...picking up a costly third foul in the first half can have dramatic effects on your, and your team's game. The opposition will try to get you to commit that fourth foul as early as possible in the second half. Then, to the bench you go, again.

In my case, it was usually "just let him stay out there and bang on the opposing center until he fouls out or injures him..."

(I played basketball just like I did football.)

You can weigh in, also. Feel free to leave a comment or e-mail us with your take at cardinalcouple@insightbb.com

WE'LL HAVE A FULL GAME RECAP AFTER THE ACTION TONIGHT. SEE YOU THEN !!
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So if you weren't a Cardinal fan...We look back at...David Watson sounds off...

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WEDNESDAY with CARDINAL COUPLE: 

-And if you weren't a UofL fan....

-WE look back at...

-David Watson sends summer greetings!

We were engaged in conversation at the 4th of July (actually the 3rd of July) cookout we attended. The crowd was mixed....almost 50/50 UofL vs. UK...but long time friends here and no hostilities involved....other than the usual friendly banter about the schools, the teams and the players. Call it what you will...but Paul and Larry were unstoppable as a team on bean bag toss (cornhole) when they were throwing on the UofL boards with UofL beanbags. The UK boards were set up later when the crowd grew and the "champs"  couldn't win a game. I suspect Calipari or Joker Phillips were hiding in the hedges laughing and practicing voodoo on the guys...but I have no proof.

The subject of team support rolled around and Tim brought up the question.

"If you weren't a UofL fan or a UK fan...who would you support?"

Ernie (who is a UK fan but proudly supports UofL football) tackled the question first.

Ernie prefers UK but is an avid UofL football fan.

"I'd go with the Cardinals. I cheer for UofL unless they're playing UK. My wife and one of my sons are UofL fans. But, when we were kids...my Dad was a UK fan and I guess that's why I like them better. He converted to UofL later on...I'm sure football tailgating out at the old Cardinal Stadium had a lot to do with that...but I still prefer UK."

Can you picture Paul in a blue shirt and hat with Cat logo?

Kenny (another BIG BLUE backer) chimed in next:

"Probably go with Tennessee. I just like the SEC. Kentucky and Tennessee have had some great rivalries over the years in basketball."

Paul followed:

This guy converted Paul to the Cardinals

"You all know me...I'm Cardinal red...but it wasn't always that way. I grew up listening to UK basketball on the radio with my Dad. I remember Cawood (Ledford) calling games when Pat Riley, Cotton Nash and the Rupp's Runts were playing. Cawood's pre and post game interviews with (Adolph) Rupp. It wasn't until junior high school that I started following UofL...my buddy Stu was a big UofL fan and this guy named Denny Crum showed up to coach the Cards. He was brash, had charisma and the Cards were an exciting team. If there were no UofL...I'd probably still be a UK fan...but I do like Notre Dame and Virginia Tech." 

How about you? If there were no Cardinals...what team would you back? We've set up a poll on the infamous "left side of the board" with nine other options and a "other" option. Let us know...

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Tuesday, January 4th. was a raw and blustery evening. #18 St. John's was in town to face the Lady Cards at the KFC YUM! Center. The first five minutes of the contest saw the leads exchange...a Becky Burke three-pointer put Louisville up 8-7...but St. John's came back and led 13-12 at the 12:48 mark. Keyed by a Tia Gibbs 3...the Cards regained the lead at 15-13 and would stretch it out to 19-13 on a Monique Reid jumper with 10:30 left in the first half. St. John's found a run of their own, though and cut it to 19-17. It was the closest they would get the rest of the game, though...as Louisville controlled the remainder of the half and took a 36-27 lead into the locker room. Burke had 13 first half points, with three for five shooting beyond the arc, and Tia Gibbs and Monique Reid combined for 15 points. Shoni Schimmel was having an off night early...1-8 from the floor.

Shoni's late free throws helped seal the win over
the Red Storm.

The Red Storm came out as a tropical depression in the second half and hit just two of their first nine shots. Louisville bumped the advantage to 45-33 and the crowd in the downtown arena was on their feet and loud. St. John's made a brief rally and cut the margin to 50-41 before Schimmel wowed the crowd with a deep three to stifle the comeback. Tia Gibbs was on fire in the second half along with Monique Reid and the Louisville lead grew to 69-58 with just a little over three minutes remaining. The Red Storm weren't conceding, though and Nadirah McKenith scored to cut the Cardinal lead to 71-65...capping a 7-2 Red Storm run...with 1:50 left on the clock. They would keep it close...A Eugenia McPherson three made it 75-70 with 53 seconds remaining. The Cards knew they would need to convert on the free throw line the remainder of the game and did just that...Schimmel hitting four attempts from the charity stripe and UofL making seven free throws down the stretch to pull away with a 84-73 win

Five UofL players accounted for 80 of the Cardinals' points...Monique Reid led the way with 24, followed by 21 for Becky Burke, 18 for Tia Gibbs, 11 out of Shoni Schimmel and 6 for Keisha Hines. The Cards were now 2-0 in the BIG EAST and had conquered their third top 25 opponent of the season...

In the post game press conference, Jeff Walz talked about "toughness" and the Cards had shown plenty of it on a night where the "Storm" failed to materialize in the "Ville." 

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DAVID WATSON is a special contributor to CARDINAL COUPLE. He catches us up on his summer...

Nat King Cole sang a song years ago called "The Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer" and the title fits for me as we roll out of the 4th of July weekend and head into the "dog days" of 2011. Ever wonder how that term."dog days" got started? It refers to the the "dog star" or Sirius-which rises and sets with the sun during July and August. The ancient Romans thought that it added extra heat to the earth. They also thought that feeding Christians to the lions was a lot of fun. Go figure.

David believes in improving
fairway lies. On those rare
occasions he actually hits a ball
there...

My pre "dog days" have been spent chasing a little while ball and coaching little league baseball. I'm not very good at either this year and double bogeys and double digit defeats are causing me troubled dreams and constant mutterings to myself. I'm identifying with the University of Tennessee fans these days.

I like this time of year. Even though UofL sports are inactive, I like the prolonged daylight, warm weather and soft summer nights on my back porch deck-listening to the Cincinnati Reds or Chicago Cubs on the radio and nursing a few beers or Makers on the rocks. Hearing my oldest daughter talk about her day working at the "big box store". I even like cutting grass and watering my flowers. I'm not a big fan of thunderstorms, though.

I hope your summer is going well. Before we know it, Jeff Walz will be in Canada, Rick Pitino will be in the tropics and Charlie Strong will be prowling the sidelines. All three are probably better golfers than me. I have no doubt they're better coaches. I'm going to devote the next couple of weeks attempting to talk Brett Farve out of making another comeback. Good luck there, right?

(The "Mercy Rule"in sports was created with David's coaching abilities in mind.
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Photos, analysis and comments on the Cards win over UK

Monday (morning you sure look fine) at CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Game commentary from us.

-David Watson weighs in on game.

-Breaking down the numbers.

-Football to St. Pete!

First off, congratulations to the Louisville football team for selecting to play Southern Miss. in the Beef O' Brady bowl in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Dec 21st. CARDINAL COUPLE will endeavor to have at least one of our chimps or correspondents on site for the activities and game. Guess I need to get out the straws and see who gets the short one. Amazing things out of Charlie Strong's bunch this year. GO CARDS!

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Louisville did a lot of good things in Sunday's win over the Cats, but we were most impressed with the way the Cards took the offense to UK the entire game. Such a big difference from last year's embarrassment in Lexington. The Cats tried to full court press and pressure the ball on out of bounds plays...but the Cards committed only 21 turnovers all night...a far cry from last year's 35. Most importantly, Shoni Schimmel and Shelby Harper continuously just beat the UK pressure with quick passes and hyper speed ball movement with the dribble. When Louisville went on the defensive side,
they made sure the Cats did not beat them
from outside the three point arc. The Cats went 3-18 from three point range, no player connecting more than once. Keyla Snowden, in particular...had a horrible afternoon...1-12 overall and 1-6 from beyond the arc.

Louisville allowed the Cats to creep

within 10 a couple of times. The 10-2 UK run to start the second half had more than just a few worried, but a Vails paint score and then back to back threes from Schimmel and Becky Burke put Louisville on a 8-0 run and a 53-35 lead.

When UK fought back to make it 55-45 with 9:20 to go after a A'dia Mathies score, Louisville went on a 15-3 run that featured (2) Burke threes, a Schimmel three and a Vails jumper that blew the margin out to 70-48 and had Cards fans breathing easier.

Give UK credit for dominating the boards 50-39...but also keep in mind that 22 of those were offensive and 10 of them belonged to Victoria Dunlap. She is unstoppable, it seems at times...but Louisville managed to shut down the rest of the Cats effectively.

We have to wonder what is going on with the Asia Taylor situation. Paul noticed she was not warming up with the team and inquiries on press row were met with no answers. Finally, we received a comment that we needed to ask Jeff Walz after the game...that she was still with the team but not playing today.

Walz handled the question in the post game press talk by stating that she had some things to do, that he was unhappy with some of the things she was doing and he told her that he didn't need her for today's game. Here's hoping she does what she has to do to get back in a uniform. She's been Sonja's favorite LADY CARD since she arrived on campus and a strong force rebounding for Louisville.

The experiment of bringing Monique Reid off the bench continues to be a success story for the Cards. Reid went 2-9 for the game, but most of those were in the paint and she was getting chopped and bumped by UK's front line. It translated into 6-8 free throw shooting for the Fern Creek junior.

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CARDINAL COUPLE special correspondent David Watson was at Sunday's game and shares these thoughts:

Shelby Harper is Louisville's Energizer Bunny. She just keeps going and going. I'd like to book her for my New Year's Eve party.
The obvious crowd favorite, Harper enters the game like a friendly puppy entering a room full of people. Dashing here and there at full speed, occasionally getting bumped and banged. Hook her to UofL's power grid and the campus would never have to worry about another LG&E bill. No fear in this sophomore. She's not the class and style of a Becky Burke, not a gunslinger who calmly shoots down the opposition. She's not a Shoni Schimmel, no eye popping passes or incredible long range bombs. She's the engine in a finely tuned Cardinal car. Keep going, #1.

Burke and Schimmel have great compatibility on the court. Louisville hasn't had this kind of dynamic duo since the days of McCoughtry and Bingham. They play well off each other and they seem to know, to anticipate each other's moves and location on the court. Awfully fun to watch. Look out, BIG EAST, because they're headed your way soon.

From my vantage view in the visitor's end zone, it was obvious that UK felt aggression and elbows was the key to success. Might want to redraw the schematic, Matthew Mitchell. A lot of that obviously came from the frustration of getting beat. Harper, Monique Reid, Keisha Hines and Sherrone Vails received more body shots and elbows than a pre -dawn crowd awaiting to get in Kohl's on Black Friday. UK's Brittany Henderson has a great future in pro wrestling after her college days are over. Victoria Dunlap could start for the UK football team's defensive line next year. These Cats play rough. The SEC is in for a whole lot of sore ribs and bruises. Whether it can translate into wins for them is dubious.

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In the "tell your statistics to shut up" category, let's look at some of the numbers that led Louisville to Sunday's win:
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- Louisville shot 49.1% for the game and went 12-21 from three point range. Burke and Schimmel took all 12 Cardinal treys. UK went a dismal 28.2% from the field and actually put up 16 more shots than the Cards.

-Both teams shot 60% from the free throw line. Louisville connecting on 12-20 and UK 9-15. Dunlap and Reid each got to the line eight times, Monique hitting six and Victoria five. The Cats were whistled for 17 fouls, Louisville 15. Brittany Henderson fouled out...Reid and Hines had four each for UofL.

-The Louisville freshmen scored 36 points in the game from just two players...Schimmel and Vails. All five available freshmen did play, off the bench...Charmaine Tay with 4 minutes and a rebound, foul and turnover. Walz put in Polly Harrington and Antonita Slaughter in the final minute.

-Only 21 turnovers for the LADY CARDS, 22 for UK. Schimmel had eight of them and A'dia Mathies and Crystal Riley five each. UK had only four assists in 40 minutes...Louisville 19. The Cards had 5 blocked shots and 11 steals, UK 1 block and nine steals.

-UK did win the second chance points stat with 23, compared to UofL's 7. They outrebounded Louisville 50-39. The Cards took the fast break point battle 8-2 and points off turnovers 25-18. UK won the points in the paint category 30-24.

-Burke logged the most minutes for the Cards with 38. Schimmel saw 35 minutes, Vails 33, Reid 27, Harper 24, Hines 20 and Gibbs 16. The other five Cards logged seven on court minutes.

(Photos in today's report from Paul in the end zone, except for Charlie Springer's (UofL Card Game) great shot of Sherrone Vails elevating. We recommend that you also check out Frankie's photos over at "Hell in the Hall" and you can follow our link on the home page to get there. CARDINAL DOMINANCE also has posted some great shots of the action as well. (Good to know guys with good cameras...)