Tuesday Cardinal Couple -- Cards WBB falls at Syracuse 68-57

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Cards "siesta" proves deadly in 11 point loss

-BIG EAST Tournament Pairings

-CARDINAL COUPLE BIG EAST Tournament Pick 'Em

Louisville women's basketball team didn't play too badly for 32 minutes against Syracuse Monday night. It was the eight-minute nap that they took offensively that was the downfall in the 68-57 loss to the Orange in Syracuse, NY.

441 fans in attendance for a matchup between two top-25 teams. Disgraceful. They should send Syracuse to the Horizon Conference instead of the ACC in women's hoops...

A Jude Schimmel steal and layup had the Cards ahead 38-37 with 14:56 to go in the game. Louisville didn't score again until a Bria Smith steal made it 53-40 Syracuse with 6:33 to go.

A 16-0 Syracuse run..where the Orange got points from five different players...and set a lead that the Cards couldn't overcome.

Louisville did try to fight back. The Cards responded with a 18-7 run over a 5:30 stretch to climb back with four at 60-56 after a off-balance, falling down Shoni Schimmel three at the 1:07 mark. Syracuse made the best out of their free throws the rest of the way to end the game on a 8-1 run.

The Cards came out hot to start the game, going on a 8-0 run after Brittany Sykes gave the Cuse the early 3-0 lead. Nita Slaughter's second three of the game put UofL ahead 8-3 at the 15:48 mark. Louisville still lead 14-11 after a Sherrone Vails jumper at the 8:51 mark. Syracuse briefly grabbed a 24-23 lead with 2:39 left in the first half...but the Cards got two Shoni threes in the final 1:25 of the first half...the final one with three seconds remaining...to give Louisville a 29-27 lead at the half.

Shoni and Sara Hammond had eight points in the first twenty, Slaughter added six, Jude with five and Sherrone Vails two for the Cards in the first half. Syracuse out-rebounded Louisville 19-17 but had 12 turnovers.

Syracuse started the second half on a 7-2 run and led 34-31 on a Sykes layup...but Jude drilled a three to tie it with 17:25 left. Jude steal and layup gave Louisville their final lead at 38-37.

Then, the rim closed for the Cards.

Shoni led all scorers with 19 points, Jude added 12 and Slaughter and Hammond ended with eight each. Smith and Denies finished with four each and Vails two points. Shelby Harper and Cortnee Walton played but did not score. Monique Reid was available but Coach Walz chose not to use her...feeling the extra rest before the BIG EAST Tournament would do her good.

Louisville lost the rebounding battle 47-34 and Syracuse enjoyed a 18-8 advantage with points-in-the-paint. Freshman Brittany Sykes and senior Kayla Alexander had 16 points each for Quentin Hillsman's Orange.

Bonita Spence...Paulie's favorite referee in the whole wide world...actually didn't do a horrible job...she only missed about a dozen calls instead of her normal 20-25. Harper and Hammond getting creamed by 'thug-girl' Kayla Alexander in the final minute...and the resulting "no calls" were moronic by Spencer. Especially the swinging of the elbows by Alexander at Hammond's face. Control your dogs, Quentin. I hope Alexander dislocates those elbows the next time she tries to get "street" in a game already decided.

Uncalled for and very poor sportsmanship.

With the win, Syracuse gets the #3 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament. Louisville gets #4 and will play next at noon on Sunday against either Cincinnati, Seton Hall or St. John's in the quarterfinals.

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Norte Dame is the #1 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament defeating UConn in three overtimes last night 97-88.

First round match ups on Friday:

Cincy plays Seton Hall
Pitt plays Marquette
Providence plays Georgetown

Second round on Saturday

#5 seed St. John gets the Cincy/Seton Hall winner
Rutgers and DePaul play each other on Saturday
Villanova gets the winner of the Pitt/Marquette game
South Florida gets the Providence/Georgetown winner.

Sunday action

Louisville against Cincy, Seton Hall or St. John's
Notre Dame against Rutgers or DePaul
UConn faces Pitt, Marquette or Villanova
Syracuse draws Georgetown, Providence or South Florida.

The semi finals will be played Monday night and finals Tuesday night at the XL Center in Hartford.

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CARDINAL COUPLE once again proudly presents the BIG EAST Tournament Pick 'Em Contest. At stake, a $25 CHILI'S gift card to the winner! 14 games in all, pick the winner for each and take the prize.

Here's Bill the Goat's bracket as an example.

SETON HALL over Cincy. PITT over Marquette. GEORGETOWN over Providence in first day action.

SETON HALL over St. John's. RUTGERS over DePaul.
VILLANOVA over Pitt . SOUTH FLORIDA over Georgetown in the second day of games.

LOUISVILLE over Seton Hall. NORTE DAME over Rutgers.
CONNECTICUT over Villanova. SOUTH FLORIDA over Syracuse in the quarterfinals.

LOUISVILLE over Notre Dame. CONNECTICUT over South Florida in the semifinals.

LOUISVILLE defeats Connecticut in the finals.

Another way is:

Seton Hall, Pitt, Georgetown
Seton Hall, Rutgers, Villanova, South Florida
Louisville, Notre Dame, Connecticut, South Florida
Louisville, Connecticut
Louisville


14 games played, 14 winners picked. (No one said Bill knows anything about basketball...BTW.)

Send your picks to cardinalcouple@insightbb.com or you can leave them in the comments section of any of the articles this week.

-- Entries close at noon Friday. Be sure to give us a name and e-mail or phone # to contact you by...if you win.

We'll try to find a decent bracket set up and post it Tuesday or Wednesday. Good luck and may the best prognosticator win!

Download the BIG EAST Women's Tournament Bracket at:

www.bigeast.org/wbb

-Paulie





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