Pregame Notes:
Good afternoon Card Nation, and happy Super Bowl Sunday. The 16-7 ((9-3) in the ACC) Louisville Cardinals take on the Stanford Cardinal. The Cardinal are coming to the YUM Center very un-Stanford like. They are 11-11 overall and 3-8 in their first year in the ACC. Meanwhile, Louisville is coming into today’s game trying to stay alive for a double-bye in the conference tournament. Louisville is also coming off a 70-63 victory over a ranked California Bears team in the YUM Center. The Cards were led by senior post player Olivia Cochran, who had a season-high 18 points and scored her 1,500th point in a Louisville uniform. Th Cards got major production from freshmen Imari Berry and Mackenly Randolph with 14 points and 4 points respectively. For today’s game, the Cards will be sporting special edition uniforms celebrating and observing Black history and black culture. The series between Louisville and Stanford is currently tied a 1 each, as both of the previous meetings took place in the NCAA tournament.
STARTING LINEUP:
Tajianna Roberts: (12.9 ppg,2.9rpg)
Jayda Curry: (11.7 ppg, 2.0rpg)
Ja’ Leah Williams: (6.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg)
Nyla Harris: (9.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg)
Olivia Cochran: (10.7 ppg, 6.5rpg)
1ST QUARTER:
Nyla Harris’ offensive put-back put the Cards on the board first. Louisville took a 7-4 lead into the media timeout. After forcing a Stanford scoring drought of over 4 minutes, Louisville unfortunately went 1-8 and wasn’t able to capitalize on their great defense. The Cards took a brief 11-6 lead before Stanford went on a 9-2 run to take a 15-11 lead. A jumper by Instanbulluoglue cut the Stanford lead to 2 (15-13) with 16 seconds remaining. Stanford took that 15-13 lead heading into the second quarter.
2ND QUARTER:
Jayda Curry tied the game at 15 with the first points in the quarter at the 7:30 mark. Good defense and ball movement sparked a 10-3 run for the Cards as they took a 23-18 lead with just under 5 minutes remaining in the quarter. Louisville’s struggles from beyond the arc continued in the quarter, but the Cards were able to shoot 50% from the field while holding Stanford to 25%. Louisville took a 30-23 lead heading into intermission.
HALFTIME STATS:
Field goal %: 13-32 (40.0%)
3pt field goal %: 1-7 (55.6%)
Free throw %: 3-3 (71.4%)
Rebounds: 20 (6 offensive)
Assists: 7
Steals: 4
Turnovers: 6
Leading Scorer: Nyla Harris (8)
3RD QUARTER:
Basketball is truly a game of runs. Within the first 4 minutes of the quarter, there were three separate runs of 5 points or more. Taj Roberts went on a 10-0 run of her own to give Louisville a 45-29 lead. Louisville was able to open up their biggest lead of the game in the quarter (52-32) with just over two minutes remaining. The Cards were held scoreless the final 2:18, but were still able to take a 52-34 lead heading into the final quarter of intermission.
4TH QUARTER:
Louisville has had some issues closing out games in the 4th quarter this season. Today, Stanford was able to cut a once 18-point deficit to as low as 4 (63-59) before a 3-point play by Curry pushed the lead back up to 7. The Cards committed 7 turnovers in the quarter and allowed Stanford to shoot over 60%. Curry scored 10 of the Cards 11 points to put away a pesky Stanford team. Cards win a close one, 74-65.
Final Stats:
Field goal%: 26–56 (46.4%)
3pt field goal %: 6-14 (42.9%)
Free throw%: 16-21 (62.5%)
Rebounds: 35 (11 offensive)
Assists: 12
Steals: 8
Turnovers: 18
Bench Points: 11
Leading Scorer: Tajianna Roberts (21)
POSTGAME NOTES:
Louisville improves to 17-7 on the season and takes a 2-1 series lead vs the Stanford Cardinal. The Cards are now 10-3 in ACC play. The Cards were led in scoring by freshman Tajianna Roberts with 21. Ja’Leah Williams and Jayda Curry were the other two Cardinals in double-figure scoring with 13 and 19 respectively. Louisville shot better from beyond the arc today. Louisville struggled to put away yet another team in the fourth quarter. The Cards will travel to Tallahassee to take a ranked Seminoles team, Thursday at 6 pm.
