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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Monday Cardinal Couple -- Softball fells LSU , Hoops ends regular season tonight

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- LeCoq closes door on Tigers

- Syracuse vs. Louisville in WBB tonight


The start was shaky for the #15 Louisville softball team Sunday in the Citrus Classic but the end result successful as the Cards defeat #11 LSU 6-2.

Starter Caralisa Connell was having "one of those afternoons" ...loading the bags with three straight walks in the second inning. A wild pitch made it 2-0 LSU and a fourth base on balls loaded the bases again with two outs.

Exit Connell, enter Rachel LeCoq. End LSU threat with a strike out.

Louisville responded in the top of the third against LSU pitcher Rachelle Fico. Katie Keller singled and reached home on a Alicja Wolny double. Maggie Ruckenbrod's base hit plated Wolny and the Cards had tied the game.

UofL took the lead in the fifth inning, Keller scoring after receiving a base on balls and scoring on a Ruckenbrod fielders' choice.

The Cardinals increased the lead to 5-2 with a couple of runs in the sixth. Hannan Kiyohara singled and scored with two outs on a Jennifer Esteban hit. Esteban got greeted at home as well when Keller delivered a single.

Maggie Ruckenbrod delivered an insurance run in the final inning with a bomber over the left field fence to make it 6-2...her first home run of the season.

LeCoq (7-1) with the clutch relief performance...holding LSU to just three hits and no runs in 5.1 innings. The Cards produced 11 hits total.

"This was a great day for Louisville softball. I thought our team did a tremendous job and really came ready to play. A big key to our win was Rachel LeCoq shutting down LSU. I also thought we had great offense throughout the game." said Sandy Pearsall after the triumph.

Jordan Trimble has been sick and did not play. Jasmine Smithson-Willett has been battling a stress fracture but saw limited action. Hoping two of my favorite players on the team can get back to full time participation soon.

Louisville returns to Ulmer Stadium for the Red and Black Classic March 8-10. A good group of opponents coming in to play...Michigan, Miami (OH), Austin Peay and Illinois State.

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After a triple overtime loss Saturday to Villanova, no one could blame the Syracuse women's basketball team for looking for a little redemption tonight against Louisville. Although an NCAA bid appears to be a certain thing for the #22 Orange, who are 22-6 overall and 10-5 in the BIG EAST, the chance for a "double bye" in the upcoming BIG EAST Tournament hinges on a win over Louisville tonight.

Quentin Hillsman isn't a confident man.

" I worry about it every day. I'd be worried if we beat Villanova because we've been on both ends. We're not in that room with that little S-curve thing they talk about...Hopefully we come out Monday and have some legs left after this and win this Louisville game."

The Orange have an RPI of 46 and could fall no further than 6th with a loss to Louisville. The prevailing sentiment is that the NCAA will take eight BIG EAST teams...
(Connecticut, Notre Dame, Louisville, St. John's, Syracuse, South Florida, DePaul and Villanova.)...but a 'Cuse win would guarantee a nicer seeding...since SU has lost their last three games.

Louisville is guaranteed a top four finish and double bye in the BIG EAST Tournament regardless of how they do...they own the tie-breaker over St. John's if they end up at 11-5 in conference each.

The players that the Cards have to worry about? It begins in the paint with Kayla Alexander, the 6'5" do-it-all center. She and forward Carmen Tyson-Thomas had 22 points and 11 rebounds each against 'Nova Saturday.

Head Coach Quentin Hillsman will be active on the
sidelines tonight.

Guards Brittany Sykes and LaShay Taft are big-time ballers that will challenge the Cards. Elashier Hall a talented player who scores well in the 'Cuse offensive set. Rachel Coffey a great shooter who is also tough defensively.

Louisville has their work cut out for them. The Cards will need to go toe-to-toe with the aggressive, physical, chip-on-their-shoulder Orange and if Louisville can get the three-ball working (Laura Sweeney from Villanova blasted the 'Cuse from the deep Saturday) the Cards chances for success go up dramatically.

Game time 9 p.m. on the CBSSN network.

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