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THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-WBB swarms Eckerd Tritons 83-29 Weds. night






Shelby nailed her only three tonight

 In mythology, a triton refers to a Greek God or his children. Last night in the KFC YUM! Center, the kids showed up instead of the Gods...Louisville racing out to a 11-1 lead in the first 210 seconds of the game and winning easily by 54 over Eckerd.

Sara Hammond recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards and Megan Deines' debut as a Cardinal was impressive with 11 points...including two three-pointers. Shawnta Dyer impressive with 12 points in 17 minutes and Monique Reid's return to the hardwood was a grand success...Mo leading all scorers with 13 points in 15 minutes. 

STARTERS: Dyer, Smith, Shoni, Deines and Hammond

The annual halftime trick-or-treat costume parade!

The Cards got two baskets from Bria Smith in the early going to lead 6-1 and a Smith layup made it 11-1. Eckerd offered a brief rally to make it 11-6 after a Taylor Bestry three and climbed within four at the 10:53 mark after Amy Buccilla's three made it 15-11...but the Cards, buoyed by Jude Schimmel and Shelby Harper, took off on a 17-4 run that saw six points from Reid, who entered the game at the 8:17 mark. Add five each from Jude and Shelby and the Cards were up 32-15 with four minutes left in the first half. Shoni finally got on the board with a nice jumper at the 1:37 mark and Louisville took a 36-20 lead into halftime.

Second half warmups

The Cards came out on a mission in the second half and held Eckerd scoreless for the first six minutes of the second stanza while amassing 15 points. The scoreboard read 51-20 and five Cards scored in the spurt. After a Eckerd three, Louisville raced off again on a 16-0 run and led 67-23 with 8:15 remaining in the game. The Cards were substituting frequently and scored their final six points of the game from the foul line...blitzing the Tritons 16-6 the rest of the way. 83-29 final.

FIVE THINGS WE LIKED

1) Welcome back, Mo! Remember how easily Monique Reid could score underneath the basket? That hasn't changed. Reid was 6-10 from the floor (including one questionable three) and looked like the 2010-11 edition.
2) Hey, Jude! The younger Schimmel showed a lot of confidence at the point and had seven points and three rebounds in 20 minutes. Add five assists and three steals. It's good to be a sophomore...

Nita waits to inbounds in front of a praying Bob Domine

3) Dining with Deines. The freshman showed her long range skills with two treys and was perfect from the foul line. She should see a lot of time at the wing this season and plays with a lot of confidence.
4) Slammin' Hammond. She grabbed double the number of rebounds of any other Lady Card tonight and had some nice put backs. 4 for 10 but a lot of them were contested. Another one glad to be a sophomore.
5) Sho-time!  Even though she had only eight points, Shoni delivered some incredible passing, five assists and three steals. Shoni exhibiting the confidence and
skill we've come to expect of her. The 3-12 shooting will get better. Jude had her shot to out-score her tonight. Shoni cashed in on a layup with 5:25 left to edge her out.  

FIVE THINGS TO WORK ON

1) Free throws. 16-25 won't cut it in BIG EAST play.
2) Defensive rebounding. Eckerd with a 28-18 advantage. It may be where Asia Taylor is missed the most. Of course, Louisville attempted 75 shots and Eckerd just 31....so the numbers are a bit skewered.
3) Three-point shooting. 5-16 = 31.3%. Some glimmers of hope there with Deines and Shoni. Nita only tried two....missing both. None were forced.
4) Blocked shots. Eckerd held an surprising 11-3 advantage here. Shot-swatter Vails had just one.
5) Recognition. Mo probably could have had 20 tonight if the backup guards had been more dutiful in getting her the ball. Shoni does a great job of it...Jude and Shelby need to improve on it.


STATS THAT AMAZE

-- Steals. Louisville 26 - Eckerd 1
-- Turnovers. Eckerd 41 - Louisville 8
-- Points off turnovers. Louisville 48 - Eckerd 0

FINAL SCORING

Hammond 10, Dyer 12, Deines 11, Reid 13, Smith 9, Shoni 8, Harper 5, Vails 4, Slaughter 2, Walton 2, Jude 7. Eleven played, eleven scored.  

FINAL ANALYSIS



Cards on attack!

 OK. Yeah...it was Eckerd, not UConn...but nevertheless a very impressive effort by Walz's Warriors tonight. Dyer and Hammond are going to be force inside with Mo. Shoni's passing is in mid-season form already. The Cards used a plethora of lineup combinations tonight and none of them bogged down. Things to improve on, sure....aren't there always?...but consider this...Louisville ended the game on a 68-18 run. With no player getting more than 25 minutes. Consider us impressed and pleased. It gets "real" on November 9th., against Texas A&M....but this was a great tune-up for it.

POST GAME WALZ

On defense and rebounding:

" I thought we did a really good job defending in the second half. We did a really good job with our press... causing some problems and causing some turnovers. I was really pleased when we played straight man-to-man in the second half without pressing, we have to be able to do that. In order for us to be good this year we have to keep people in front of us, gotta make them make shots over us and not let them go by us and turn things into layups."

On players who have made big leaps and bounds over the summer :

" Jude Schimmel worked extremely hard this summer, there's no question about it. I was really pleased with her game....five assists and one turnover tonight in twenty minutes of play. Bria Smith has worked on her game, just one turnover tonight. Sara Hammond has worked extremely hard. We've got players who have stepped their game up. In order for us to continue and improve, our players have to get better as individuals. Then, we get better as a team."

General assesment of tonight's game :

" It was fun. The first six...seven minutes of the game I thought we came out with a lot of energy and had the ball moving. Then we got a little sloppy. Then, I thought we started turning it on again when I put Jude and Shelby in at the same time. It's when we really started to get things going. Overall, I was please with the effort. We're going to have to get back to work now and put in a good few days before the game on the ninth (against Texas A&M)."

On Monique Reid's performance:

" It was about what we expect out of her. I don't expect her to get a point a minute every night. The only thing I did tell her on the bench is that she has to come up with more than one board in fifteen minutes of play. And that's all I was planning on playing her, those fifteen minutes. With that knee, I'm trying to get her back a little at a time...where we can hopefully have her full-go by mid-December or the first of January. 

On Megan Deines starting:

 " She's going to have to start. She's done well in practice, she's playing hard. Without Tia and Asia right now, she's our 'three' player. She'll be out there playing a lot of minutes for us. She started off a little rough tonight. I've got to get her to be more aggressive. If she can get that going, she'll be fine."
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