I did not get to watch this one, good ol' second shift reared its ugly head again, but I did listen "to the accounts and descriptions of the contest" on my ancient Sony Walkman while toiling.
This one had me in a panic. Jeff Walz warned it would be a rough one and no blowout and he was right. So, let's jump to:
FIVE THINGS ABOUT THIS GAME
5) If you go get the ball, you're likely to gain possession of it. The Chips of CMU out-rebounded the Cards 37-32. It seemed like I heard a lot of chatter about CMU rushing to the ball, blocking out, scooping up rebounds and their general hustle. Coach Walz commented that the Cards would need to rebound better after the NKU game. I wonder if it was just a generality, because the rebounding improvement did not happen last night. CMU seemed to outquick UofL all night long. At times, the Cards seemed a step slow.
4) Surviving the ropes and bouncing back to slug it out. Central Michigan took a 47-46 lead with about three minutes to go in the third quarter. How did Louisville respond? Ol' "Nite-nite" Asia Durr came down court, put one in the cylinder and was fouled. She completed the "plus 1". Louisville never trailed again. (We'll have more on "in-cred-DURR-able" later).
3) Slug it out Sam, be a beast Bionca. 22 points between them (Fuehring 14, Dunham eight). Their first half efforts kept Louisville in the lead, because Asia had just accumulated five points at the break. Asia will tell you it was a matter of getting her teammates involved. Who am I to argue with the best player in women's college basketball? The two had just three combined points in the second half, though, and Bionca did a lot of sitting because of foul issues.
2) #13 is an unlucky number. After I got home, I asked Paulie more about this CMU player named Frost, who held her own version of "Light Up Louisville" with 22 points. Honestly, I thought Nick Curran was giving weather reports on the radio, all this mention of Frost. One of Paulie's final texts to me last night was "got no answer for 13" But, I woke up this morning, looked outside and there was no frost on the cars. Maybe Asia scraped the windows, because she was...
1) Asia, she'll amaze ya. 31 points for Douglasville, Georgia's finest. Asia tallied 26 points in the final 20 minutes. She joined the 2000-point club last night. In the second half, she executed 9 of 10 free throw shooting and, I could go on and on. Maybe the CMU head coach Sue said it the best when she mentioned post game "We ran into a very tough opponent that had the #1 player in the country on their roster". And, nonchalant as ever, Durr claimed it as a team effort that got the Cards the win. I hope she gets everything she asked for this Christmas, because she gave the Cards a big Christmas present last night with her efforts.
12-0.
Merry Christmas all! We'll talk next year.
-- sonja --
