CARDS STRIKE EARLY IN WIN OVER THE SKYHAWKS
No such Vegas problems tonight in the KFC YUM Center for Jeff Walz's Lady Cards. Louisville jumped out to an early 9-3 lead in the first 2 minutes of the game, increased that to 27-5 with 11:30 remaining in the first half and coasted home with the 25 point win over UT-Martin.
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The Cards were led by the efforts of freshman guard Shoni Schimmel, who had 14 of her 24 points in the first half...a half where Louisville doubled the score on UTM and led 50-25 at the break. At her side was Monique Reid, tallying 10 of her 20 points in the first twenty minutes. The Cards forced 15 Skyhawk turnovers in the first half and Louisville nailed 6 of 13 threes to lead by as many as 26 at 45-19 with 3:40 to go. Walz played ten players in the first twenty minutes, all scoring but Rachel Story and Shelby Harper. The suffocating 1-2-2 press Louisville employed early in the game was the difference and the Cards scored 21 points off turnovers and 28 in the paint.
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Walz experimented with a lot of different combinations in the final twenty minutes and Louisville saw its largest lead at 60-27 with 17:35 remaining. UTM battled on gamely, though and used a 7-2 run midway thru the second half to cut the Cardinal lead to 20 points at 73-53 with 9:24 remaining. Louisville got strong second half performances from Tia Gibbs and Asia Taylor, though...to keep Tennessee-Martin at bay and notch their 10th win of the season.
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Schimmel led the Cards with 24 points and also added 12 assists and 7 steals to her 31 minutes of work tonight. Reid lit the board for 20 points and 7 boards. Tia Gibbs (11 pts., 5 steals) and Becky Burke (10 points) rounded out the double figure performers for the Lady Cards.
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UT-Martin got another outstanding performance from freshman guard Heather Butler who had 29 points and sank seven three pointers for the SkyHawks. Jasmine Newton, another freshman guard contributed 16 points. The SkyHawks launched 33 trifectas against the Cards, who seemed a step slow at times to defend the long ball. UTM ended with 25 turnovers and gave up a whopping 17 steals to the ballhawking Cardinal guards.
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All 11 that dressed for Louisville played...Charmaine Tay was not at the game due to travel delays in getting out of New Jersey and the big winter blizzard on the East Coast. LaToya Johnson sat out with an undisclosed injury. For the Cards, impressive performances by Antonita Slaughter who nailed three from deep for her nine points. Asia Taylor turned in a sold 17 minutes with six points and five rebounds.
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FROM THE POST GAME:
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Shoni Schimmel on the fast start:
"I felt like we just came out with good energy and things went well. We had a lot of making up to do after Vegas and I thought we came out and played harder."
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Schimmel on the Vegas trip and Walz's reaction:
"We did some good things and some bad things out there and he talked about all of them. He told us what to do and what not to do so we cleaned it up...basically...for this game. We're fixing it. Slow steps...that's what he told me."
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Monique Reid on UTM's three point production:
"Yeah, it was definitely a discussion after the game. We did let them shoot and it was on the scouting report...us needing to get a hand out there and we didn't do it that good. So, it's something we need to work on."
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Reid on having a week to prepare for St. John:
"We're going to concentrate a lot on us. We need to work better on certain little things. Getting prepared for the BIG EAST coming up."
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Jeff Walz on Shoni Schimmel:
"I'm really pleased with the way she's playing right now. I thought she did a fantastic job of taking care of the basketball. The one things we've talked about over the break was just trying to cut down some of her turnovers. She's always going to have 3 or 4 it's a part of the way she plays but at the same time...you won't see a lot of kids get 12 assists either. (On the night Schimmel had 1 turnover and 12 assists.)
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Walz on Schimmel' s biggest transition from high school to college:
"I think it was the speed of the game. She's really had to adjust and I think she's done a great job getting used to the quickness and it's going to be another adjustment now that we start BIG EAST play. We're going to face some quicker and stronger players. "
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Walz on the 33 three point attempts by UT- Martin:
"They're a three point shootin' team. I wasn't pleased with the way we defended the three in the second half. She (Heather Butler) was 2 for 7 in the first half. She was 5 for 7 in the second half....and it's not like it was a big surprise who was going to shoot the ball. That's something that we've got to get better at...knowing where shooters are. Antonita Slaughter got beat twice on the same play. First time shame on me, second time shame on you. That's one of the things she's got to start doing a better job for us defensively. She gives up back to back threes, then she makes a three...yeah, that's great but were still down 6-3. Hopefully, she starts to figure some things out because we need her to play some minutes for us....to give our guards some more breaks throughout the game. She does shoot the ball extremely well but for us she needs to figure out how to defend for us."
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