FAMU vs. UofL WBB...Lady Cards win 86-66

CARDINAL COUPLE GAME REPORT:

-Burke and Reid carry the load against FAMU

In-Game Report and recap...

Today's starters: Sara Hammond, Becky Burke, Cierra Warren, Bria Smith and Shoni Schimmel.

At the half...UofL 41-FAMU 29. The Lady Cards being led by Monique Reid's 19 points. Cards were sluggish to start, fell behind 5-0, but went on a 16-2 run to lead 16-7 after a Shoni three at 13:45 mark.

FAMU cut it to 28-24 with 5 minutes to go. The Cards went on a 13-4 run, led by Reid getting 10 of them, to end the half. Louisville, despite a height advantage, having trouble on the offensive boards and Cierra Warren and Sara Hammond with just 2 points each. Shoni has (2) three's for six points. 22-22 in the rebounding stats and Louisville has 13 turnovers already.

Reid played 12 minutes, didn't start...Shoni with 17 minutes.

Second half...Louisville began the second half with a 7-0 run and pushed that lead to 55-34 when Burke connected inside with 16:28 remaining. A Burke three and Dyer inside putback gave the Lady cards at 65-40 advantage with 11:05 to go. The Cards largest lead came after another Burke three made it 70-44 with nine minutes left. 

Burke left the game with 5:40 to go with 16 second half points and 21 for the game. With her and the other starters on the bench...the Cards lead fell to 16 at 82-66 with 1:30 to go, but Louisville got final four points...two by Dyer and two by Taylor to win by 20...86-66.

Louisville avoided the possibility of a letdown with solid, but not spectacular play today against a determined but less talented Lady Rattler squad. Seniors ruled the action for Louisville, besides Burke's 21, was Reid's 22. They accounted for half the Lady Cards points today. Smith had 11. Shoni finished with eight points.

Cardinal scoring:

Reid                 22 (in 18 minutes)
Burke              21
Smith              11
S. Schimmel    9
Taylor              6
Dyer                 6
Hammond       4
J. Schimmel    3
Warren           2
Vails                2

(Harper & Slaughter played...no points.)

THINGS WE LIKED ABOUT TODAY:

-Becky Burke from deep. Five baskets from three point range today. She is at 999 career points and should join the 1000-point club Tuesday night in the KFC YUM Center against Murray State. She'd be the 22nd. Lady Card to get there.

-Shooting defense. Louisville held FAMU to 31% shooting.

-38-10 points-in-the-paint advantage. Thanks to Reid, Dyer and Taylor...the Cards were getting put backs and inside scores.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT:

-Turnovers. Maybe fatigue had something to do with it, but 27 turnovers is way too many against a MEAC Conference opponent. Sloppy guard ball-handling and dropped feeds in the paint.

-Freshman slump. After playing a big role in the early season, the freshman contribution today fell off to just 18 points. With Reid back, we expected a bit off a drop-off...but not this much.

-Oh where, oh where did our Cierra Warren go? A virtual ghost today with just 2 points. Maybe Walz figured he didn't need her, or she was worn out from Friday's two point second half effort. Puzzling. Her fouls seem forced at times.

HE SAID IT:

Coach Walz was far from pleased with the effort today, calling it "sloppy" and "uninspired" at times. Other things he touched on after the game:

-The freshmen need to become more active in the overall effort.

-Jude's play was not good today. Needs to figure out why.

-Turnover numbers were embarrassing today.

-Liked the way the Cards came out to start the second half and the way they battled back early in the first half after falling behind. Wishes they wouldn't get in those come-from-behind early situations, though.

-Pleased with Reid's 18 minutes and stressed that she would continue to get about 18-25 a game. Won't be a 40 minute-a-game-player..she tires too easily. 30 minutes about the most she can go, if necessary...right now.

- Burke continues to communicate well and show senior leadership abilities.

-The Lady Cards guards must play better when guarding the opponent with the ball and rebound better from the guard position.

Louisville returns to action Tuesday night, in the KFC YUM! Center with a 7 p.m. contest against Murray State. After that, the annual matchup against UK - this year in Lexington. (Memorial Coliseum, Sun. Dec. 4th., 1 p.m.) The Lady Kats are 6-0 and play tomorrow.

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Arslanbekova, Turner get BIG EAST Player of the Week recognition...Dealing with the grief at FAMU

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TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Lola Arslanbekova named BIG EAST Volleyball Player of the Week

-Hayley Turner named BIG EAST Field Hockey Player of the Week

-FAMU grieves the murder of Shannon Washington

-Another 2012 commit in the works for WBB?

Junior Lola Arslanbekova racked up a couple of honors over the weekend for the University of Louisville Volleyball team...being named MVP of the Crowne Plaza Cardinal Classic and BIG EAST Player of the Week. The Cards went 3-0 in the tournament...downing Wichita State, Mississippi and Eastern Illinois.

Arslanbekova was dominating in the matches...recording 63 kills...and she also set a new, single game personal best with 26 against Wichita State. She is the quickest player to ever reach 1000 career kills in Cardinal history.

The pre-season BIG EAST Player of the Year, Lola has received the prestigious Player of the Week honor three times in her career at UofL. Louisville travels to Lexington Wednesday night to face rival UK in Memorial Coliseum.

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Senior Hayley Turner has been selected as BIG EAST Field Hockey Player of the Week for her weekend efforts for the Cards. Turner scored four goals in two games while in North Carolina...as Louisville defeated Davidson 5-3 and lost to Wake Forest in overtime 3-2.

Turner is a midfielder from Sydney, Australia and currently tied for fifth for Louisville's career goals (38) and points (89) record.

In field hockey, a player gets two points in the statistics line if they score a goal and one point for an assist. Goals are the only points that count in the official scoring of the match, though. Turner has nine points this season...on four goals (8 points) and one assist.

The 16th. ranked Field Hockey Cards return to the friendly confines of Trager Stadium for two matches this week. They'll square off against Missouri State on Friday, Sept. 9th. at 3 p.m. and entertain Appalachian State Sunday, Sept 11th at 2 p.m.

Cardinal fans have a great opportunity to take in a sports double-header on Friday...since the football game against FIU starts at 7 p.m.

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Shock, disbelief and mourning on the Florida A&M campus as the Rattlers and students come to grips with the stabbing and death of Florida A&M women's basketball player Shannon Washington on Sunday morning.

Washington was a shooting guard expected
to start for FAMU.

According to police reports, Starquineshia Palmer has been charged with first degree murder. The two were involved in a domestic relationship and got into an argument early Sunday morning. Palmer stabbed Washington several times in the neck and back around 2 a.m. Washington was rushed to a Tallahassee hospital but died several hours later.

Washington had transferred to FAMU after a highly successful two years at Illinois Valley Community College in Oglesby, Illinois. While there, she earned National Junior College All-American honors and was expected to become the Rattlers shooting guard this fall.

A memorial service was held Monday for Washington with students and coaches from the school attending. FAMU head coach LeDawn Gibson spoke of Washington's impressive pre-season practice and conditioning drill earlier in the day and that despite just arriving on campus this fall...she had achieved a leadership status among the players and was well-liked.

The University of Louisville women's basketball team will travel to Tallahassee to play FAMU on November 26th....after playing Florida State on the 25th.

OUR hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to the Rattlers over this senseless and tragic murder of an up and coming star and WE hope that a swift death penalty will be metered out to this cold-hearted killer.

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No official word...but we're getting indicators here at Cardinal Couple that Jeff Walz may have landed another verbal for 2012. Seems a certain 6'1" combo guard/forward may have caught his eye. We'll do some legwork and let you know. If it's true, he's gotten a verbal out of a highly talented and sought after player who was all All-State her junior year and averaged 20 points a game. More as we get it...

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