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Cards 60 -Ducks 42

Sonja

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Jun 20, 2001
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Today's words are Dana and Defense.

The Cards got a career-tying high 29 points from guard dana Evans and held Oregon to 18-56 from the floor in their 18-point win over the Ducks Sunday night in the Alamodome.

Hello, Great Eight and welcome back, Dana Evans.

It was a slow start for both squads, Louisville leading just 10-8 after 10 minutes -- but the Cards continued the defensive heroics and erupted for a 19-6 performance in the second quarter to grab a 29-14 halftime lead. Evans had 13 points after 20 minutes and Oregon had to be shrugging their shoulders and asking themselves what was going on after the first twenty.

The Cards were the faster squad and had closed the door defensively on the Pac-12 foe, allowing just seven made baskets in the first half. The game wasn't over, but Louisville was showing the intensity and getting the stops.

Oregon would mount a rally to end the third quarter and start the fourth -- cutting the Cardinal lead to six -- ut Evans responded with a pair of three-pointers and the threat was quelled.

Louisville held Oregon to less than 10 points in three of the four quarters and 6'7" center Sedona Prince was a non-factor with just 10 points in 23 minutes. True, Oregon was without their starting point guard for this one, her replacement went down early and the Ducks lost their powerful "4" in the second half -- and that had a huge effect on what Oregon could accomplish.

Speed and efficiency had overcome height. Evans had found her mark again on Sunday night and the Ducks couldn't stop her.

''I knew it would end at the right time, when I needed it to,'' Evans said. ''My teammates didn't need me to do what I did tonight in the other games. Everybody has been stepping up. I think everything happens for a reason. My teammates were able to get their confidence and get going and now that I feel like that I'm back to my normal self, I feel like we're going to be just fine.''

Dana also mentioned former Louisville great "Nite-Nite" -- Asia Durr --had reached out to her over the last few days.

''She sent me a nice text just telling me to just relax, let the game come to me and don't overthink it,'' Evans said. ''I took her words, and it worked.''

Jeff Walz revealed a new strategy in his post-game remarks:

''I completely changed up the pregame speech. It was more of a plead, `Please play hard,''' Walz said. ''Whatever I told you to do, just do the opposite because the last two weren't good at all. So happy how we came out and defended, especially in the first quarter.''

Kelly Graves, Oregon head coach, saw it this way:

''Coach Walz had them ready and they deserved it tonight,'' Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. ''They played harder tonight and got us on our heels early. We couldn't quite recover. We made an effort to cut it to six, then they went on a run that we couldn't recover from. That being said, I'm proud of my team and don't think a month ago people thought we'd be here.''

Play of the game? It had to be the sequence where Kasa Robinson got a steal late in the fourth quarter, started ot with the ball in the transition fast-break and delivered a behind-the-back pass to Evans, who went in for an uncontested layup. Cue up the SportsCenter theme for that one.

The Ducks missed all nine 3-point attempts in the first half and finished the game 2 for 18. from beyond the arc. Losing starting Maddie Scherr in the first half with an foot injury and forward Nyara Sabally in the second half with a lef injury didn't help Oregon's chances, obviously, but last night it was a case of Oregon not being able to put the ball in the bucket -- scroing 30 points less than their season average. Attribute that to the Cards pressure defense and rapid-fire offensive sequences, which had Oregon a step slow and confused most of the evening.

It's the Cardinal next for the Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Jeff Walz and Kianna Smith will address the media today at 11 a.m. and we'll add it here to the site shortly after they do that.

Survive and advance. That's the name of the game this time of year -- and Louisville continues to do that. Defense wins games and the Cards have excelled at it in the last three games -- holding opponents to 43,53 and 42 points in the tournament.

--sonja--
 
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It was such a good game for the Cards to have. Just a pleasure to watch. When they are in synch, they are phenomenal (as is everyone I suppose!). Thanks to Kasa and Dana. And Coach Walz. And everyone. What a super night and game to watch. Oregon had to feel just awful missing key players and with injuries.
 
I want to add something. When Dana turned on it was light flipping a light switch. A thing of beauty.
 
For those who continue to question Jeff's 4 guard lineup, and those who continue to be enamored with taller opponents; this last weekend provided sufficient evidence that quickness and defensive ball pressure will generally negate superior height. Yesterday IU beat the same NCST team that had beaten us twice this year, by effectively neutralizing the Wolfpack's half-court offense. IU's 5' 7" Hillary pressured Perez into 5 turnovers and further limited her ability to deliver her patented interior passes to Cunane; who in turn also had 5 turnovers and missed 9 out of her 15 shots.

As for Oregon's superior height; the 3 "big inside ducks", consisting of 6' 2" Boley, 6' 5" Sabally and 6' 7" Prince combined for a total of 38 points; in contrast the 3 UL guards (Evans, Van Lith and K. Smith) combined for 48 points. I appreciate it does not always work out that way, but by judging the success that Jeff Walz has each year, I believe the 4 guard strategy is quite effective. Cochrane is just a true freshman, and she lacks the experience at this time to pose a real offensive threat against some of these tall and talented post players. However, she and Liz Dixon did a nice job of putting a body on the Oregon bigs in the paint.
 
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