Thursday Cardinal Couple -- Schimmel shines in gutsy win

THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Staff Columnist Jenny O' Bryan with the recap of Louisville's clutch win over USF Tuesday Night in Tampa)


Cardinal Women’s Basketball headed to Florida to face a South Florida team that recently took Notre Dame to overtime before finally losing.  Hitting the Sunshine State with a team that continues to battle injuries, most recently to 5^th year senior Monique Reid, the Cards faced a huge task to win on the road in the brutal Big East.  Our ladies gutted out a win for the ages last evening  (78-75) bringing home the "W" and starting the second half of conference play at 18-4, 6-2 this upcoming Saturday. 

The game started fast and furious with both teams choosing to run from the opening tip.  Atop Louisville’s list of keys to the game was to keep “the big 3” under control offensively.  The guard combination of Andrea Smith, Andrell Smith and Inga Orekhova was the defensive assignment for the night.  The Cardinals were to limit the dribble penetration and guard the 3 ball from the Bulls top performers.

The Cards started off to a slow start in guarding Orekhova who had 11 of the Bulls first 18 points and opened with back to back open 3’s.  With 6 minutes of play in the books and Orekhova already in double figures, the Cardinal defense went to work.  Orekhova was held to just 4 more points the entirety of the game. 

It was a trigger-happy first half with the game held close most of the half, until the Cardinals pulled away late in the half to an 8 point lead.  The Cardinals gave up most of the lead late, heading in to halftime with USF closing on a 7-0 run, Louisville led 42-41. 

Shoni Schimmel was hot from the start and single handedly kept the Cardinals in the game offensively from the start going in to halftime with 20 points, adding 2 assists and 2 steals to her stat line.  It was a Cardinal team effort though, running screens giving Shoni great open looks, and the hot hand kept draining them.  Jude Schimmel did a fabulous job of distributing the ball in the first half with all 6 of her assists coming in the first half.  The collective Cardinal effort kept the team in it outrebounding the Bulls 18-15, 11 assists on 15 made goals and picking the Bulls pocket 7 times.   It was halftime folks, and the Cards were up and looked like they just might be able to get the win!

The second half opened and once again the Cardinals got off to a slow start.  It was a back and forth effort to start, with the Cardinals offense drying up and the Bulls taking a game high 9 point lead with 13 minutes left to play.  The Cardinal defense could not get a stop and the team seemed on the edge of letting the game slip through their hands. 

With a time out called, a new rotation of players in, the Cardinals came out and played fantastic defense for the next 12 or so minutes.  The Cardinals were getting stops, and were on the cusp of starting to hit buckets again.  Shoni led the charge offensively with some late game heroic shooting from Antonita Slaughter who had not quite found her touch in the game until very late.  Good shooters keep shooting, and a 9-0 run by Shoni and a HUGE 3 from ‘Nita had the Cards surging back to take the lead by 6 with just more than a minute left in the game. 

There is no way I can do justice to the last minute of play in South Florida.  The Cardinals saw a 6 point lead with a little more than a minute left to play dwindle to one, 3 clock malfunctions (to the benefit of USF each time), and two 1-1 foul shots missed on the front end by the Cardinals.  Shoni and Bria both missed the front end of foul shots.  It was a nail biter, a few new grey hairs sprouted, but the Cardinals found a way to gut out this win.  The last six Cardinal points came from the charity stripe...Schimmel and Slaughter scored the last 12 points for Louisville. The final score was 78-75 with the Bulls taking a last second 3 point shot in an attempt to tie the game. 

How many times have we seen this team defending a last second 3 pointer to decide the game?  It has happened way too many times for this fan's liking.  I have liked to reserve the 'Cardiac Cards' title for the men, but our women are doing the name proud these last few games. 

What we liked:

Schimmel shines- Shoni had a fantastic game, scoring a career high 38 points, and tying a school record of 8 three-pointers in a game.   Shoni played 39 minutes of very good basketball, perhaps the most efficient I have seen her, going 12-20, 6-7 at the free throw line, 3 assists, 3 boards, 2 blocks and 1 steal.  In 39 minutes of play she had just 3 turnovers.  It was an outstanding performance and one the Cardinal fans know she is consistently capable of.  Excellent job Shoni, way to shine!

Defensive effort- while it waned at times in this game, there was very strong, strong defensive energy from a lot of the players.  All but 3 Cards got at least 1 steal and Bria led the way with 5.  The defensive effort of this team has been keeping them in the close games.  Keep it up ladies this kind of defensive effort wins games!

Vails in the paint- Sherrone had a big night for the team with 7 huge boards, 5 offensively, and 3 blocked shots.  There were a couple grabs late in the game that saved their goose!  It’s nice to see that kind of work from the big girl and we hope to see more of it. 

Collective effort- While the scoring was not very balanced, there was a strong collective effort from the team as a whole.  Cortnee Walton grabbed 2 big boards and went 2-3 from the line.  Jude dished out 6 assists, Hammond had 8 points, 2 assists and 1 steal in 23 minutes.  Slaughter having a difficult shooting night hit BIG shots when the Cardinals needed them and sank several free throws down the stretch.  It was just a great collective effort from the team!

Things to work on:

Finishing games- The Cardinals are finding ways to win, but they are giving up leads late and making the wins much harder than they need to be.  This team has to figure out how to close games.  Coach Walz talks about it being the mental part of their game.  Whatever it is, your devoted fans would appreciate you, even more, with less last-second wins.

Free throws- While the Cards finished at 73% for the game, there were big free throws missed in the last minute of play.  It did not cost the Cards the win tonight, but it easily could have. 

It is really hard to nit-pick on such a HUGE road win.  I am so proud of this team for battling through adversity with injuries and winning close, last second games.  Last years team would have folded under many of these very close games.  It was a great effort and a “monumental win”, and this Cardinal Faithful could not be more proud. 

Cards Radio color analyst Adrienne Johnson said in her closing remarks that this team “grew up tonight on the road”.  Congratulations ladies on a hard fought, team-effort win!

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The team next hits the court on Saturday, Feb. 2 at home against Georgetown for a 2:00 p.m.tip.  If you listened to last night's win on the radio, you know this team deserves a welcome home party Saturday.  Coach Walz is challenging the Cardinal Faithful to come out and support these ladies.  They deserve it!  It was a gutsy, gutsy win with only a portion of the lineup that was expected this year.  These ladies are playing tough basketball and growing every game out.  Be a part of this remaining season, it all starts on Saturday.

If you stick around after Saturday's game, you'll also get the chance to see an WBB Alumnae game, too!

The Cardinals are currently ranked 3^rd in attendance, behind Connecticut and Tennessee.   The goal was to take the top in attendance this year.  It is not out of reach!  With 5 home games remaining in February and a package deal of $25 for the remaining 5 games, you just can’t beat the family entertainment.   Call Louisville Athletic Ticketing office at 852-5151 to get “on the train” and support Louisville Women’s Basketball.  

( WE fully agree with Jenny...do whatever it takes to get out Saturday to see the Lady Cards in action against Georgetown and the league's leading scorer in Sugar Rodgers. Coach Walz and the team would love to see 13,000 in attendance. Let's give them a great surprise and put 15,000 in the KFC YUM! Center. The Hoyas came into our house two years ago and embarrassed the Cards 76-52. Time to serve a little payback...)
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