Cards travel to Ohio for Sunday basketball

SUNDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Lady Cards vs. Ohio University 2 p.m Sunday

-Volleyball falls to Marquette.

-A look at the U.T. vs UofL stats.

-Tough loss at PJCS.

-Hammond makes it official.

(Terry Jackson, top notch photographer for CARDINAL DOMINANCE, caught CARDINAL COUPLE Co-Owner Paul Sykes at the Louisville vs. Tennessee women's basketball game. We were in the end zone...directly in front of the cheerleaders, the pep band right behind us and next to where Tennessee entered and left the court. Bob Domine and Tony Vanetti were on either side of Paul. Domine is very insightful on game comments and Vanetti was probably just there for the media buffet. Assigned seating for this one, otherwise Paul would have headed for center court.)

Jeff Walz takes the Lady Cards to Athens, OH. Sunday afternoon for a 2 p.m. tipoff against the Bobcats. The Cards will be seeking their first win of the season after falling to the Vols Friday night in a closer than expected 63-50 loss.

The Bobcats are fueled by a couple of transfers and showed balanced scoring in an exhibition game against Ohio Dominican. Tenishia Benson, a transfer from Cincinnati, tossed in 17 points for O.U. and Ashley Fowler added 14. Thia Gholson, who played her high school ball at Louisville Assumption, hit the net for nine and Alesia Howard, a transfer from UMass, was good for eight in the 30 point 66-36 romp. Today's game will be the first regular season contest for the Bobcats.

For Louisville, Monique Reid leads the team with 19 points and 9 rebounds. Jim Kelch and Paul Sanderford (who we mistakenly identified as Charlie Just earlier last week) will handle the play by play on 790 AM / 101.7 FM WKRD. The game can also be heard over at http://www.uoflsports.com/ for the out of towners.

Look for Walz to try and establish the transition game that never seemed to get off the ground against the defensive minded Lady Vols. Also look for a little deeper rotation in today's contest. Walz played only ten of his charges against Pat Summitt's team and three of them (Taylor, Tay and Story) saw less than ten minutes on the court. Shelby Harper, LaToya Johnson, Polly Harrington watched the action from the Cardinal bench.

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Louisville fell to Marquette 25-23, 25-16, 19-25, 19-25 14-16 in a hotly contested match in Milwaukee Friday night. The Cards looked to shut down the Golden Eagles after winning the first two games but a poor hitting percentage in the third game and an a 12-3 by Marquette in the fourth game forced the fifth game. Louisville fell behind early in the deciding game but roared back to tie it at 14 behind Anastasia Artemeva getting four points before Marquette managed the final two points.

For Louisville, Lola Arslanbeckova had 15 kills, Anastasia Artemeva added 14 and Emily Juhl contributed 12. The Cards travel to Syracuse Sunday for a 2 p.m. match against the Orange.

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Some interesting numbers from the UofL vs. UT basketball game:

-Louisville managed only ten rebounds in the second half against the Vols...most of those by wing Monique Reid and guard Tia Gibbs. The Louisville front line grabbed just one in the second half (Keisha Hines). The Vols were tall, no doubt...and blocked out well...but 1 rebound in the second half from your "4" and "5" spots is woeful.

-Louisville forced Tennessee into 29 turnovers...5 of those from freshman guard Meighan Simmons. She made up for it with 22 points on 9-20 shooting. Her two second half treys during the Vols 10 point run were the only treys she made in 7 attempts.

-Louisville canned only 4 attempts from the three point arc in 21 attempts. Becky Burke had two of those in five attempts, Shoni Schimmel went 1-8 behind the arc and Charmaine Tay nailed her only attempt from trifecta land.

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It's official. Sara Hammond is a Card. She sent the paper in and will be on campus next fall. She'll join Quaneisha McCurty, who is expected to sign in the spring and Cierra Robertson Warren, a transfer from UNC, who is already on campus and sitting out.

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WE don't like the "Sunday Morning Quarterback" scenarios....but the subject of debate yesterday in the post game tailgate parties at PJCS centered around UofL's decision to go for a first down on 4th and one in overtime. They failed. USF scored to win the game during the next possesion on a field goal after stopping the Cards.

To kick or not to kick a field goal....that was the decision Charlie strong was faced with. He chose the latter. Despite the criticism WE'VE heard about the choice...WE gently remind all Louisville football fans that he....not you or I or Joe Blow...is the head coach. End of debate.