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You would be forgiven for thinking it would be better off if Louisville did NOT get to host the first 2 rounds of the NCAA tournament in the Yum Center. Tonight the fans got to watch yet another loss on home court this time on Senior Night. Once again the Cards had the ball in their hands in the final seconds with a chance to send the game into overtime and came up short. The final score was 65-62.
The second quarter turned out to be the one that was the Cards undoing. At one point in the first quarter they had a 9-2 lead but then in the second the Irish reversed their fortunes to go up 10. Coach Walz said, “I thought we came out well. Three of the four quarters I thought we guarded great but the problem is one quarter again…. we held them to 7, 14, and 15 [points in 3 quarters] and that’s pretty damn good. But the problem is we couldn’t score the basketball because we were turning it over way too much.” At one point Louisville had more turnovers than made field goals.
Once again Louisville seemed stymied by their opponent’s zone defense. Coach Walz said, “We’ve got a zone offense that’s very effective if we pass the basketball. Unfortunately our past three games we have just not passed it well. We’re holding it. We’re allowing them to match up with us. You try to teach them stop staring at the ball and look at the person closest to you and the area you need to cut to. We’re just not doing that. We’re literally just standing and waiting to catch the ball…. We’ve got to get more cutting.” He added, “We’ve worked on it, but unfortunately we just didn’t execute it. So I’ve got to do a better job of teaching it.”
On the bright side Mackenly Randolph had a solid game. She had 15 points and 11 rebounds and the Cards played better when she was on the floor. Elif Instanbulluoglu once again sparked a run. She finished with 9 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists. Imari Berry had 12 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists.
The Cards now enter March Madness starting in the ACC tournament. They will play Friday at 5PM.