Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Lady Cards advance to Sweet Sixteen


Louisville advances to the Spokane Regional 3rd round action with a late, come from behind win over #2 seed Xavier Tuesday night at the Cintas Center. Shoni Schimmel throws in 33 points as the Cards go ballistic in the final 1:40 of the game, taking the lead on a Shoni Schimmel 3 and pulling away from the Musketeers.

Louisville used a 20-1 run in the last 5:16 of the contest....going from a 70-64 deficit into a 84-71 lead with 21 seconds. Louisville placed five players in double figures.
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Things weren't so easy for Louisville to start in this one. After taking an early 8-6 lead after a Schimmel three with 17:35 to go...the Cards found themselves in a battle with jumpers, the three point shooting and inside game of the Musketeers. The Cards managed to hold on to the lead until an Amber Harris tip in at 10:44 put Xavier up 24-23. The Musketeers would build that lead to six when Ta'Shia Phillips hit a layup to make it 32-26 with 7:00 left in the first half. Louisville trailed 39-32 with 2:58 remaining in the first half and went into the locker room down 40-37 after Tia Gibbs hit a jumper at the buzzer.
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Louisville went 15-28 in the first twenty minutes but could not stop a torrid Xavier 15-31 shooting effort. The teams combined for 12 first half threes.
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The second half saw Louisville draw within one or two several times early and finally caught the Musketeers at 56-56 on a Monique Reid layup with 12:09 left. Then, Xavier threw a big scare into the Cards with two straight threes and a 62-56 lead with 11:28 left. They would keep Louisville a bay with the efforts of Phillips and Harris and led 70-64 with 5:16 remaining.

That's when Schimmel and her teammates went to work. Schimmel's three with 5:00 left and a free throw at 3:07 cut the Musketeer lead to 70-68. Schimmel then tied it at 70 with a jumper and 2:22 left. A Schimmel three made it 73-70 at the 1:50 mark. Louisville would go on to score twelve of the final seventeen points of the game from there on out...all from the free throw stripe.
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Louisville gets Gonzaga next...in Spokane on Saturday, March 26th. The two have never met in women's college basketball.
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In the end, the poise and top notch marksmanship from the stripe spelled the difference for the Cards. Oh, and a talented freshman from Portland, OR. named Schimmel. Call her "Judge Schimmel"...because her court awareness is second to none. Judge Schimmel rules the court.
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