Lady Cards Basketball to face Bradley in First Round of WBI

The University of Louisville women's basketball team will face the Bradley Braves in the first round of the Womens Basketball Invitational Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in Freedom Hall. The Cards are the #3 seed in the Invitational. Bradley #6.

Bradley (16-13, 12-6) plays in the Missouri Valley Conference and will be making their first ever appearance in postseason play. They had one common opponent during the regular season...MVC Conference member Northern Iowa...who Louisville defeated in the Caribbean Classic 81-53. UNI defeated the Braves twice in three matchups this year.

The Braves feature a balanced scoring attack with no players averaging in double figures for the season. Katie Yohn (9.9), Raisa Taylor (9.2) and Sonya Harris (8.9)are the three leading scorers for the Braves. Harris grabs 10 rebounds a game and blocked 61 shots during the year.

The Braves lost their last game with a first round loss to UNI 70-50 in the MVC Tournament.

If Louisville wins, they will face the winner of the #2 seeded College of Charleston vs. #7 Morehead State. Higher seeds in the Invitational host the home games, so if C of C wins, the Cards would travel there for second round action. Second round games are scheduled for either Sat. March 20th. or Sun. March 21st. If Morehead State wins, Louisville would most likely host them on the 21st, due to a scheduling conflict with the 1st and 2nd rounds of the NCAA Women's Tournament in Freedom Hall on the 20th. and 22nd.

The other twelve teams selected for the WBI:

East Region
#1 Appalachian State vs. #8 Charleston Southern
#4 Towson vs. #5 Fairfield

West Region
#1 Memphis vs. #8 UMKC
#4 Wichita State vs. #5 Akron
#2 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. #7 Cal State-Bakersfield
#3 Washington vs. #6 Portland

Looks like a lot of directional and hyphenated schools in the mix.

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CARDINAL COUPLE has been approved by the University of Louisville and the NCAA for credentials to cover both the Lady Cards game Wednesday against Bradley and to cover the First and Second round of the NCAA Women's Tournament in Freedom Hall. Pretty exciting stuff!

Let's hope they don't pick on the "rookie" and looks like I'm going to be watching a whole lotta basketball over the next six days...(won't we all be...)

I'll provide you with eyewitness recaps of all the games and thanks to both organizations for letting us serve the readers and fans out there.

Written by Paul
3/16/10