Cards still dancing!

Fourth seeded Louisville took down the Chattanooga Mocs 82-62 Saturday in their first round match in the NCAA’s in front of the home crowd.

Chattanooga head coach, Jim Foster, opens his press conference with “Tough game”.  He and the players that joined the post presser (Joyner, Shumpert & Alford) reiterated how Louisville is just a great team and they do things that great teams do.

For the game, the Mocs were 37.5 percent from the field and Louisville, a season best 61 percent.  The Cards scored the most points and held the Mocs to their lowest in the fourth quarter.  Chattanooga seemed to just ran out of gas. For Louisville it was no problem.. they had 7.5 players seeing double digit minutes.

Asia Durr went 10-16 and scored 27 points to lead the Cardinals.  Myisha Hines-Allen, 8-11 added 16 points and 12 rebounds while Jazmine Jones came off the bench for 24 minutes and went 7-8 to get 14. Along with Durr, those three made 25-of-35 shots to fuel the offense.  Kylee Shook started and went 5-9 for 10 points in 16 minutes on the floor.

Heading into this tournament, Coach Walz stressed taking care of the basketball…  The Cards had a season best and tying the school’s record, 28 assists they were turned over only 12 times.. they forced 15 TO by Chattanooga.

Back in J-action!

Briahanna Jackson, the fifth-year senior guard, entered the game early in the second quarter. It was her first minutes since seeing 5 in the loss at Notre Dame back on Feb. 6.  Back spasms in that game cause Jackson to miss the next 8. Besides the five assists, the 5-6 Jackson also pulled down 6 rebounds in 19 minutes. She showed she wasn’t afraid to get physical by trying to draw a couple charges in the lane.  She also had a steal in the fourth that got the already rowdy crowd to their feet for the Cards.

Coach Walz, “I thought Briahanna Jackson being back was a big help for us. It gave us more depth, which is what we need.  She ends up with 5 assists, 6 boards and a turnover.”

Up next for Louisville

For only the second time the Cardinals face Tennessee in the second round of the NCAA tournament Monday night.  This is the 6th team from the state of Tennessee that the Cards have faced this season, sporting a 5-0 advantage.

The Volunteers defeated the Dayton Flyers, 66-57, Saturday afternoon to advance to meet Louisville in the second round game down at the Yum! Center. The Vols shot 42.3 percent and held the Flyers 32.3 percent, seeing significant minutes from 7 players. Diamond DeShields lead the way shooting 8-14 and going 8-10 at the free throw line for 24 point, 5 assists and 5 rebounds. Shaquilla Nunn and Mercedes Russell both had double-doubles 14 points 15 rebounds and 14 points 10 rebounds, respectively. Tennessee did not make a single 3 point basket on only 5 attempts for the afternoon.  The game was tied at the half, 29. It took the third quarter to make the difference in this one… Dayton didn’t score in the last 5 minutes of it.

As long as Louisville can keep the ball moving and keep up the “Tempo!” (as was heard being shouted by Coach Walz from the sidelines vs Chattanooga), I think there’s a good chance the Cards can out-run Tennessee.

Coach Walz on the tempo vs Chattanooga, “I told them before the game it was probably going to be a 55-60 shot (attempt) game for us. And it ended up being 59.  Normally were trying to get into a game where were getting 70 possessions.”  Tennessee had 52 possessions vs Dayton.

Hines-Allen, “Everyone is capable of playing. (Fatigue) is not a concern. Coach Walz has a plan, and just getting everyone in.  Because you never know who you’re going to need (to show up) in this tournament.   So just getting (us) ready for any game at any moment.  So just having all these different players and trying to find the right ones to be out there so we could run the game, I think that was the biggest thing… having the right 5 out on the court.”

And right now, Coach Walz got all the weapons out there at the same time.  He’s play a full deck of Cards with Asia from behind the arc, Myisha on the boards, Mariya leading the assists and Jazmine out in transition, Coach Walz believes freshman, Kylee Shook can run the floor and has her in the starting linup.

Walz, “It was a team effort”.  Another team effort can beat Tennessee on Monday night in the round of 32.

Louisville/Tennessee familiarities

Louisville 1-2 vs Tennessee, the last time these two team met was in the glory that was the 2013 NCAA tournament the Cards advancing 86-78.

Diamond DeShields’ father, Delino, is currently the manager of the Louisville Bats, two blocks from the Yum! Center.

 

As always, Go Cards Go

@darylfoust4

 

 

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Daryl Foust

Lifelong fan of the Louisville Cardinals, been covering the teams since 2012, graduated from c/o 2015, Writer/Contributor for TCZ for Men's Soccer, Women's Basketball & Softball since 2016.

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