Louisville played a pretty solid game for three quarters. Unfortunately after a spirited first half that ended with the Cards down 2 (35-37) they seemed to come out flat to start the second half. They only scored 6 points in the third quarter and despite some good runs in the fourth quarter they could never overcome the 16 point hole they’d dug themselves into.
Tajianna Roberts was scorching hot in the first half scoring 19 of her 22 points. Laura Ziegler had another double-double finishing with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Elif Istanbulluoglu had 7 points and 3 rebounds.
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After the game Coach Walz said, “We just have to make shots. If you’re open and you miss them it’s hard to establish an offense.” He added, “Their kids made open shots and that’s what I’ve challenged them with…. We have to understand that we’re a good basketball team we’re not a great basketball team. I think some of us think we’re a great one so we don’t put the work in.”
Talking about the third quarter he said, “We got outscored 20-6. Our lack of fight is a concern. There comes a point and time where I tell them foul the shit out of somebody. Make a statement foul. If somebody is scoring on me every once in awhile I’m going to say ‘shit I’m fouling.‘ But it can’t be a little slap down for an and 1. It’s not a dirty foul. Everybody who’s played this game… there’s good fouls. We didn’t have any good fouls.”
He added, “You’ve got to have somebody who’s willing to step up and say ‘I’ll guard this kid’… we’re at the point where we want to take the shot… If we only scored 6 in a quarter four or five years ago then the other team would’ve only scored 8. When we couldn’t score we said well then we can’t let them score. Now it’s like let’s let them score as quick as we can so that we can get the ball back and see if we can make a shot. We’ve got to fix that. That also comes from being humble and knowing that it takes all five on the floor.”
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Next up Louisville takes on Eastern Illinois at the Yum Center this Friday. The game is at 7PM and can be seen on ACC Network Extra.
