Cards 75 - WSU 39

WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Cards first half run corral Cougars

Louisville used a 24-3 run over the final nine minutes of the first half Tuesday night in the KFC YUM! Center to break open a 11-11 tie and grab a 35-14 lead over the visiting Washington State Cougars. After a Carly Noyes score in the paint for WSU to tie it up, Louisville ran off 12 straight unanswered points, six of them from sophomore forward Sara Hammond to grab a 23-11 lead with 5:43 remaining in the first half.  Hammond and Bria Smith combined for 18 of the points in the run and Shoni Schimmel's three with five seconds left in the half put the Cards in the locker room up 21 on the Cougars.

With Shawnta Dyer sidelined with a season-ending ACL and MCL knee injury, the Cards starte Hammond, Nita Slaughter, Sherrone Vails, Shoni Schimmel and Megan Deines and the line up roared out to a 11-4 lead in the first six and a half minutes of the game. WSU countered with a 7-0 run over the next three minutes, including five points from freshman Lia Galdeira, before the Cards went on the half-ending streak.

Sara Hammond led the Cards scoring attack in the first twenty minutes with 12 points, Bria Smith added nine, Shoni had six with two threes, Megan Deines totaled four and Sherrone Vails and Cortnee Walton had two each for Louisville...who shot 44.1% from the floor in the first half and forced 19 first-half Cougar miscues.
All eleven Cards played, Monique Reid with just two minutes because of a sore knee. Louisville had 20 points off the turnovers and 22 in the paint.

The Cards started the second half with the same lineup and led 46-20 after a layup plus one by Hammond with 16:19 to go. That lead ballooned to 54-23 after Shoni drained another three, and Walz began to empty the bench. A Sherrone Vails jumper had the Cards up 59-23 at the 10:28 mark and Jude Schimmel cashed in on a jumper with 5:49 to go to make it 70-31 UofL. The Cards led by 41 when Vails scored in the paint with 2:46 remaining to set the score at 75-34...WSU scored the final five of the game for the 75-39 finish.

Hammond led all scorers with 19 points (including 8-13 from the floor). She was joined in double-figures by Smith (13), Shoni (12) and Jude (10...all in the second half). Megan Deines added nine, Cortnee Walton finished with seven and Vails had six on 3-5 shooting. Surprisingly, Nita Slaughter did not score in 28 minutes, Shelby Harper missed all three threes in 11 minutes and Mo did not play in the second half.

The Cards (10-2) out-rebounded the Cougars 46-34, led the points off turnovers stat 30-7 and finished the game shooting 31-67 for 46.3%.

Galderia led WSU (3-6)  with 11 points and Katie Grad added 11.

THINGS WE LIKED:

1) Big-Game Bria. The sophomore guard turned in perhaps her best performance of the season with 13 points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals...while only committing two turnovers in 22 minutes. Her defense and hustle during the first half run was the Bria of old.

2) Hustlin' Hammer. Sara turned in a solid performance with seven rebounds and two assists to go with her 18 points. She also had the play of the game...hustling for a loose ball and knocking down a three with the shot-clock expiring at the 16:41 mark. Smooth...

3) Shoni Sink 'Em. Her shooting eye returned on the friendly confines of Denny Crum Court...the junior knocking down four from beyond the arc.

4) Allude to Jude. Strong second half for the sophomore...nailing a three, grabbing four boards and a assist to go with her 10 points. Each game, she keeps getting better....

5) No let up. With a 21 point first half lead, one wondered if the Cards would keep up the same intensity in the final twenty. They did that and more...leading by 41 twice in the final four minutes.

THINGS TO WORK ON:

1) You know I'm going to bring it up until it gets where I'd like it to be...but Louisville shot a dismal 6-15 from the foul line (40%). It didn't really matter tonight, but down the road...

2) Off night for Nita. After pacing the Cards in Colorado, she went 0-4 from the field and 0-2 from the three range. On defense, she did have seven boards, two steals and a block...but we'd like game-in, game out consistency from her.

3) 13 first half turnovers. 10 of them in the first ten minutes. Once again, really didn't matter tonight and they only resulted in three Cougar points, but 10 turnovers in 10 minutes in the BIG EAST will probably result in 15-20 points from a UConn or Notre Dame.


SUMMARY

 The nine-minute first half ending run was pretty incredible to watch and Louisville didn't lapse after it either. Without Dyer, the Cards will need big efforts each night out from here on out of Hammond, Vails and Walton and they got those tonight....for the most part. Good to see Shoni's shooting eye rolling back around and this was the Bria Smith we'd like to see the rest of the year.

We love the up-side potential we see in Cortnee. She could become a great one by the time her four years here are done.

Coach Walz stressed rebounding and passing the ball in the pre-game to the team, and they responded with a +12 on the boards and 17 assists. Coach expected a game that might go down to the wire, so he was pleased with the margin of victory tonight. When asked if he was pleased with the 10-2 start for the season, though...he quickly pointed out that he'd rather be 12-0 and have a healthy Dyer, Gibbs and Taylor...and will need more minutes out of Monique Reid once they get into BIG EAST play. 

( Louisville returns to action on 12/21/12 against Wagner College in the KFC YUM! CENTER. Game time is 7 p.m. If the Mayan calender is wrong, that is...)
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Monday Cardinal Couple -- WSU next for Louisville WBB

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Lady Cards host WSU Tuesday night

The University of Louisville women's basketball team will try and shake off a Friday night loss at Colorado against another PAC-12 opponent when the Washington State Cougars roll into town Tuesday night. WSU (3-5) comes off a home court victory in Pullman Saturday night...defeating #20 Ohio State 62-55.

Liz Galdeira led the Coogs with 15 points in the upset win...13 of them in the second half... as WSU led at half 28-23 but saw that lead disappear early in the second half before rallying behind their defense to pull off the win. Head WSU coach June Daughtery was a standout player for the Ohio State Buckeyes back in the 1970's when she was June Brewer. Her husband Mike is an associate coach on the team.

It was the first time the Cougars had defeated a top-20 opponent since 2001.

Despite the 3-5 record, WSU is a team to be feared and also returns Ireti Amojo, who lit up Louisville for 22 points last when when the Cards visited the Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, WA. Lousiville won that game on Dec. 19th. 75-71...getting 16 points off the bench from Shawnta Dyer. The Cards trailed 35-26 at the half. Amojo is fighting back from a knee injury that ended her season last year a couple of games after her big night against the Cards.

WSU has other wins over Monmouth and BYU this season and losses to Minnesota, San Diego State, Wisconsin, UC Riverside and Fresno State. They are led by Galdeira's 15 points a game and Tia Presley also hits for double figures for the Coogs at 11.9 a game. Presley didn't score against the Cards last season and Galdeira is a freshman out of Hawaii.

It's the first of three road games for Daughtery's squad...WSU travels to Syracuse after playing the Cards and then takes on Gonzaga (not a very far road trip for them) before going into conference play.

Louisville, meanwhile, is looking for some answers after losing two of their last three. We'll know later today, but the Cards are likely to fall out of the top 10 after the loss to Colorado.


The Cards fell to #15 at College Sports Madness.com (LINK BELOW)

Top 25 WBB rankings

 They need to find a way to get guards Shoni Schimmel and Bria Smith involved in the offense and the front line needs to improve on rebounding.

The Cards ( 9-2 ) are expecting Sara Hammond back for this one and that should help greatly with the Cards front line rebounding woes. The Cougars are -5.5 in rebounding against opponents this year. UofL is +7.2 on the boards against the opposition but was out-rebounded by 12 against Colorado.

Game time is 7 p.m. at the KFC YUM! Center.

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Second half rally leads Lady Cards past WSU 75-71

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FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Shawnta Dyer with 16 in "cardiac" Cardinal comeback

-Stats and analysis of the game

What a night...

Andrews switched
to cell phone after the
feed died.

Gametracker was freezing up, WKRD lost the radio feed and Matt Andrews ended up calling the final minute of the game on his cell phone back to the station in Louisville...but the Cards created even more excitement (and frustration) than that by rallying over the last six minutes to beat the Cougars by five.

A bizarre ending to this one tonight. WSU's Sage Romberg nailed a three with 12.9 seconds left to cut the Louisville lead to 73-71...but a WSU foul on Shawnta Dyer and subsequent technical foul on WSU's coach June Daughtery for calling a timeout with none left gave Louisville a chance for four free throws with 3.3 seconds remaining.

Shoni Schimmel cashed in on the technical shots to make it 75-71 but Dyer missed hers and then a foul was called on Jude Schimmel with 0.3 on the clock...putting WSU at the line. Fortunately, they missed and the Cards had survived a nail-biter. Here's the rest of the wild night in Pullman...

CARDINAL STARTERS: Asia Taylor, Shoni Schimmel, Bria Smith, Sherrone Vails and Becky Burke. The same starting line for the last three games now.

Burke saddled up and nailed a few threes when the
Cards needed them...

Louisville took the early lead on a Becky Burke putback and after a Schimmel jumper, the Cards led 4-0 at the 18:26 mark. Following a Cougar three...Louisville ran off eight straight points to lead 11-3 when Cierra Warren connected inside with 15:53 left in the first half.

It was the largest Cardinal lead until late in the second half.

The Cougars rallied with a 7-0 run to cut it to 11-10. Louisville countered with a 8-4 run and a Shoni layup had the Cards enjoying a 19-14 lead with 11:03 left in the first twenty. 

Romberg hit a big three late

Then, the wheels fell off. WSU ran off seven straight to take their first lead at 8:57 when Ireti Amojo sank a three to make it 21-19. After the two teams traded baskets, WSU took off again with seven straight and held a 30-23 advantage with 4:07 left. That increased to 35-25 with 1:28 remaining...Antonita Slaughter sank a free throw with 54 seconds to create a halftime score of 35-26 Cougars.

Louisville had managed just three points in the final 6:38 of play.

Play that had been delayed for five minutes while officials checked a TV monitor to figure out a foul sequence that occurred with 7 minutes to go and ended up assigning a technical foul on WSU's Hannah Potter for elbow swinging. Sure shot Becky Burke went to the line for two...and missed them both.

 

Dyer a game high 16,
eight each half.

Poor shooting plagued Louisville in the first twenty. They were 11-34 for 32% and a sad 1-10 from three point range. Shawnta Dyer's eight points led the Lady Cards...Burke had five, Shoni and Warren four each, Smith and Vails contributed two each and Slaughter had one.

The Cougars were 14-35 for 40% and an impressive 5-10 from deep. Jazmine Perkins has 12 to lead the WSU assault.

The Cards were lacking energy, passion and needed a spark.

They found it early in the second half from Bria Smith. She scored the first seven points for Louisville but the Lady Cards still trailed 39-33 with 16:47 left in the game. Taylor and Dyer went to work inside over the next couple of minutes...still, it was WSU 46-38 at the 13:05 mark. Louisville was
needing a spurt...and they found it in Jude Schimmel.

After two Bria Smith free throws, Jude got free on fast breaks and hit two consecutive layups. The Cards were within two. Cierra Warren tied it at 46-46 but WSU forged back ahead to lead 50-46 with 10 to go. Who would step up next for Louisville?

It was Becky Burke. Back to back threes by "Bigshot" gave the Lady Cards a 52-50 advantage. Then, up 54-51...Louisville head coach Jeff Walz gets a technical for protesting a foul. Three free throws tied it at 54-54. WSU snuck back ahead 57-55 but Warren hits a jumper...starting a 10-0 Louisville run, aided by threes from Shelby Harper and Burke, to lead 65-57 after Dyer connected on two free throws. She had 14 points, the Lady Cards were up by eight and 4:41 remained.

This one was far from over, though. WSU cut it to 65-60. Then, radio communication died and Sonja went scrambling to the laptop to access GAMETRACKER while I listened to the Cardinal Fight Song about a dozen times on WKRD. (They REALLY need to get a better version of that to play when their fixing glitches and gremilns...). We were able to piece things together slowly. The Cards were up 69-65, thanks to four points from Shoni. Then 69-66. Then GAME TRACKER froze up.

An anxious moment later, it started again and the voice of Matt Andrews crackled back over the radio. 71-68 Cards. Dyer gets loose on a fast break (I think he said...) 73-68. Romberg bombs a three. 73-71. He's calling the game on his cell phone and it sounds like the game is being played in a bar...

And, then the wild chain of events that we described in the opening paragraphs ended it. 75-71. Cards win, Cards win!

Dyer led the Lady Cards with 16, followed by Shoni and Burke with 14 points. Smith hit double figures also with 11. Warren finished with eight, Jude and Shelby four each, Vails two and Slaughter and Taylor one each. Sara Hammond played but did not score. Monique Reid's left knee will be evaluated again when the Lady Cards return to Louisville. She sat out this one.

For WSU, 22 from Ireti Amojo and 19 out of Perkins led the way.

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Let's not underestimate this Cougar team and the hard effort they gave last night. They beat BIG EAST member Marquette earlier in the season. They fell just short against Gonzaga, who knocked off Georgia last night. Their match-up zone was effective on bottling up Shoni for most of the game and they did have nine steals. Perkins and Amojo are quality players that will have some big games against PAC 12 opponents this season.

-Louisville narrowly won the rebounding battle 39-36 last night. A team effort...no Lady Card had more than five (Shoni and Warren).

-The Cards cut back on turnovers with only 14. They forced the Cougars into 17. Bria Smith guilty of four - no other UofL player had more than two.

-Louisville's three point efforts improved dramatically in the final twenty minutes...going 4-7. For the game, the Cards were 5-17.

-Missed free throws were a factor...Louisville obtaining only 57% accuracy from the line (16-28). The Cougars slightly better with 16-24 shooting (66.7%)

-Only one player fouled out, and that was WSU guard Tia Presley. Warren picked up four for Louisville.

-Walz played all eleven available for duty...Shoni seeing 38 minutes and Burke 35. Dyer and Smith logged 25 each, Jude 19 and Taylor and Warren with 16 each. Vails saw 10 minutes, Harper seven, Hammond five and Slaughter four.

-2019 watched this one, pretty much evenly divided between Coogs fans and Schimmel/Lady Cards backers. I'm convinced Louisville could draw record numbers to Ice Station Zebra in the South Pole, if Shoni and Jude were playing. 77 penguins, 11 polar bears and a few whales...

WHAT WE LIKED:

-It's not over till we say it's over...Louisville battled back from an early eight point second half deficit to take the lead for good with six minutes left in the game. The eight point advantage with 4:41 left - capping a 10-0 Lady Cards run - was fool's gold, though...the Cougars came back and cut it to three several times and two with 12.9 seconds left. Louisville never relinqushed the lead, though...and took WSU's best efforts and shots.

-Hiya, Harper! Shelby gave Louisville seven key minutes, all in the second half. Her free throw gave Louisville a 55-54 lead after WSU had tied it after
cashing in on free throws after Walz's technical. A Harper three with six minutes left gave the Cards the lead for good. 

-Big shot Becky. Burke's three second half threes all came at critical points in the game. Two in a row erased a four point Cougar lead. Her final of the half put Louisville up by six with 4:56 left. Senior stability and leadership at work.

-Dyer circumstances. WE like the way Shawnta Dyer has stepped up her game on the west coast swing. Louisville needs a dependable "big" to go to and take some of the pressure off Shoni and Becky. With Monique Reid hobbled, looks like Dyer is applying for the job. Hired.

THINGS TO IMPROVE ON

-It's a forty minute game. Louisville appeared very out-of-sync and dis-jointed near the end of the first half. Three points in the final 6:21 of that half very seldom puts a team in a winning position. The Cards need to improve on the continuity and finding someone to step up and prevent lapses like this.

-Again, it's a forty minute game. Louisville had a seemingly sufficient 73-68 lead when Shoni found Dyer with a fast break pass with 21 seconds left. Then, a defensive lapse allows the Cougars' Romberg to nail a three. Louisville has it won when Jude inexplicably fouls Rosetta Adzasu as time expires and the Cards have a 75-71 lead. Two shots from the line. One make and a desperation three on a miss ties this thing. Fortunately, Adzasu misses the first.

The foul was not needed. Freshman error...hopefully, she'll learn from it.

With the win, Louisville improves to 11-2. They'll take a few days off to spend the holidays with family and re-assemble for two-a-days before facing Tenn-Martin next Wednesday. Rest up, ladies. After the break, it gets a whole lot tougher.
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Cougars bring 6-4 record, challenging schedule into tonight's game

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MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Cougars face 10-2 Lady Cards in Pullman, WA.

-Recapping Sunday's BIG EAST action

-Sandy Walker discusses a "foul" subject

The Lady Cards conclude the west coast trip this evening with a 9 p.m. tipoff (E.S.T.) against the Washington State Cougars. WSU (6-4) comes into the game on a two game win streak and it is the final of four in a row at home for the Cougars. They've defeated UC-Riverside and San Diego St. in their last two.

Carly Noyes (right) is a 6'5"
junior center for the Cougars

WSU has faced a challenging non-conference schedule while building their 6-4 record. They've also defeated UNC WIlmington, Wisconsin, MARQUETTE (65-52), and Prairie View A&M this season. Losses have come to Penn State, South Dakota State, MIchigan (69-39) and a narrow 71-69 loss to Gonzaga. After Louisville, they'll conclude their non-conference slate with a trip to Ohio State.

Daughtery also had previous stints at
Boise State and Washington. She digs the
northwest...

The Cougars are coached by June Daughtery. She's in her fifth season at Pullman and has a record of 38-93 as the WSU head coach. They're 2-1 at home this year. Her husband Mike, is an assistant coach.

No Cougars are averaging in double figures.

Soph. guard Ireti Amojo ( a play-by-play announcer's dream name for a player) has nine points a game, junior center Carly Noyes checks in with 8.2, Tia Presley is good for 8.1 and Sage Romberg at 8.0. Jasmine Perkins leads WSU with 6.5 grabs a game.

Louisville and Washington State have never met before.

For the Lady Cards, it'll be a matter of another "home game" on the road, since it's Native American Appreciation Night and Schimmel fans will flock to see the girls in their last Northwestern U.S. appearance of the regular season. Louisville will look to continue the impressive defensive performance that they threw down on the Portland Pilots on Saturday...when the kept the Coogs from scoring a basket for nearly 13 minutes in the first half. They could have their hands full with the 6'5" Noyes on the boards and road fatigue could be a possible issue for the jet-lagged Cards...who are off for nine days after tonight's contest.

WKRD 790 will have the call in the Louisville area, WSU's official sports website offers a pay-per-view of the match and Gametracker will be a step slow and a half hour behind in giving reports on the action. 

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Cats lost their claws when A'dia
fouled out.

 BIG EAST women's basketball went 4-1 yesterday...with UCONN falling to the Baylor Bears 66-61. Winners were Notre Dame over Kentucky 92-83, St John, with a 64-60 triumph over Memphis, Rutgers easily handled Iona 62-29 and Syracuse (not Georgetown, like we reported yesterday) squared off against Xavier and took the win 70-67.

Would these "Young Guns" fared any better than UCONN
did against Baylor?

The UConn-Baylor contest was an exciting one...the Huskies looked like they were in control with a 10 point second half lead but the Bears, led by Odyssey Sims and Brittany Griner came roaring back, buoyed by their home crowd support, and took the win. WE actually had turned it off for a few minutes (Paul and his love for the Emilio Estevez "Young Guns" movies) and were shocked to find Baylor back in it. Is there a better center in WBB College than Griner? 

UK lost A'dia Mathies to fouls in the second half and watched Notre Dame go on a 10-0 run to pull away from a stubborn, overachieving UK squad in South Bend. WE had talked about how we thought the UofL inside game was superior to UK's a few weeks back. We were wrong and we admit it. Drake, and now Samari Walker, will punish SEC competition. As for Notre Dame, we called it right...Novosel applied the novocaine to the Kats. 23 points, one of five Irish in double figures.

ON TAP TONIGHT:

--SYRACUSE vs. Oklahoma ("Q" gets his Sooner on...)
--PROVIDENCE hosts Delaware (The big girl..Elena Delle Donne..has the Blue Hens at 8-0)
--CINCINNATI at home against Indianapolis (no, in WBB...not NFL)
--DEPAUL travels to Illinois State. (But, they're from Illinois, the state.)
--MARQUETTE invites SDSU to Milwaukee. (That's the South Dakota State Jack-Rabbits)

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(Sandy Walker is a contributing writer for CARDINAL COUPLE. She looks at foul strategy today.)

FOUL STRATEGY

Is benching a player after two first half fouls
for the rest of the half the right thing to do?

Last night I watched a college game where, once again, players were benched after picking up their second foul of the first half. What had been a multiple lead-changing game changed into a half-time six point deficit after two starters were sat down for committing two fouls each. I'm guessing that a lot of the CARDINAL COUPLE readers are younger than me, so you can be forgiven for not remembering far back enough into basketball history when after two fouls, you might sit a player long enough to calm them down and think it over a bit...but that player would re-enter and play in the first half until they picked up a third foul.

(Please share your comments and any education you have on this subject with me, either in the comments section or by e-mail to Cardinal Couple.) 

NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy, who was calling the game, said:

"Smart players have to be able to learn to play with fouls."

How does this happen while sitting on the bench? When did this "shifting of strategy" occur and  why is a player sitting on the bench in the first half with two fouls contributing more to their team than the same player sitting on the bench with five fouls in the second half?

(PAUL)
I'll take a crack at addressing this one with my own opinion. Never been a fan of sitting a player with two first half fouls. Maybe because I was a fouling machine when I played. But, if you are a good player and are important to your team...picking up a costly third foul in the first half can have dramatic effects on your, and your team's game. The opposition will try to get you to commit that fourth foul as early as possible in the second half. Then, to the bench you go, again.

In my case, it was usually "just let him stay out there and bang on the opposing center until he fouls out or injures him..."

(I played basketball just like I did football.)

You can weigh in, also. Feel free to leave a comment or e-mail us with your take at cardinalcouple@insightbb.com

WE'LL HAVE A FULL GAME RECAP AFTER THE ACTION TONIGHT. SEE YOU THEN !!
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