#4 NC State used a 45-35 advantage in the second half last night to overcome Dana Evans career-high 29 points and defeat the Cardinals WBB squad 74-60 Monday Night in the KFC YUM! Center.
Let's be honest. Louisville played badly. Don't believe me? Didn't see it? Let's go to Jeff Walz and his post-game remarks:
"We had some good looks, especially in the first half, that we just didn't make, but we didn't do a great job on the scouting report, which I'll take responsibility for that. I got to make sure we're dialed in and prepared. A few of their players did exactly what we knew they would and -- I don't know if we weren't prepared for it or what -- but we didn't do a good job defensively in a few situations."
Louisville started with a "two-bigs" lineup with a twist -- putting Liz Dixon and Olivia Cochran on the floor to begin, with Dana Evans, Hailey Van Lith and Kianna Smith. It was revealed later that usual starter Elizabeth Balogun woke up Monday morning with a stomach ailment and was a game-time decision. She eventually entered the contest at the 3:32 mark in the first quarter.
The Cards played NC State to a first quarter tie at 18-18 and had a three-point lead on several occasions -- but Louisville failed to out-score NC State in the remaining three quarters and trailed at the half 29-25. Shooting wasn't going either teams way -- the Cards were 11-29 (37-9) and having difficulties from three-point range with a 3-10 effort. NC State was equally bad -- going 12-35 (34.3) from the floor and 3-13 from beyond the arc.
The Cards were still in it after 20 minutes but needed to pick up the rebound, especially on the offensive boards. NC State held a 23-18 edge in grabs -- and were controlling the offensive boards 7-2.
For all the speculation on whether Elissa Cunane would would for Wes Moore's squad, it was the smallest player on the court for NCST that was leading them in scoring in Raina Perez with 10 points. On the Louisville side, Evans had 10 points also.
The turning point of the contest came in the third quarter when NC State pushed a four-point lead (35-31) into a ten-point advantage (41-31) in a two-minute stretch. The Cards missed three shots in those two minutes and had two turnovers and NC State made all three of their attempts. Louisville would make a late third-quarter rally to cut the deficit to three after a Evans three with a minute to go but went into the fourth quarter down 49-44.
The first five minutes of the fourth quarter was another rough stretch for the Cardinals. NC State went on a 14-3 run to gain a 63-47 advantage and, despite Evans efforts, the Cards could get no closer than nine the rest of the way.
Walz on the effort:
"It was just a bad game. It was not one of our finest performances. That what we talked to the players about after the game in the locker room. What are we going to be defined as? Are we going to get back to work and improve in the areas we need to improve on, or are we going to hang our heads and allow one bad game to turn into two, then three and four? We talked about that. I've got a very resilient group, though, that's ready to get back to work."
Walz also gave credit where credit is due:
"In the second half, I thought they (NC State) did a great job offensively and that gave us some problems. We couldn't get a score-stop-score generated. Give NC State all the credit in the world. They played really hard tonight, they played physical and they're a really good basketball team. No question about it."
And, that pretty well sums it up. On leaving, Paulie and I heard one of the coaches comment that "that was a Final Four team that beat us tonight."
Key stats would include the WolfPack dominating the boards 44-29 and holding Louisville to 38.3 shooting on the night . No Cardinals other than Evans reached double figures, Cochran and Kianna Smith had eight points each -- Cochran led the Cards with nine rebounds. Walz played eight Cards in all, Evans seeing all 40 minutes of action. Van Lith played 34 minutes, Cochran 33, Smith 30, Dixon 26, Balogun 23 and Robinson 10. Norika Konno started the second half, but played just four minutes in all.
The Cards roll back into action Thursday night with a contest in Boston against the Eagles. Despite the loss, the Cards still are in first place in the ACC with a 9-1 conference mark, NC State is 7-1.
--sonja--
Let's be honest. Louisville played badly. Don't believe me? Didn't see it? Let's go to Jeff Walz and his post-game remarks:
"We had some good looks, especially in the first half, that we just didn't make, but we didn't do a great job on the scouting report, which I'll take responsibility for that. I got to make sure we're dialed in and prepared. A few of their players did exactly what we knew they would and -- I don't know if we weren't prepared for it or what -- but we didn't do a good job defensively in a few situations."
Louisville started with a "two-bigs" lineup with a twist -- putting Liz Dixon and Olivia Cochran on the floor to begin, with Dana Evans, Hailey Van Lith and Kianna Smith. It was revealed later that usual starter Elizabeth Balogun woke up Monday morning with a stomach ailment and was a game-time decision. She eventually entered the contest at the 3:32 mark in the first quarter.
The Cards played NC State to a first quarter tie at 18-18 and had a three-point lead on several occasions -- but Louisville failed to out-score NC State in the remaining three quarters and trailed at the half 29-25. Shooting wasn't going either teams way -- the Cards were 11-29 (37-9) and having difficulties from three-point range with a 3-10 effort. NC State was equally bad -- going 12-35 (34.3) from the floor and 3-13 from beyond the arc.
The Cards were still in it after 20 minutes but needed to pick up the rebound, especially on the offensive boards. NC State held a 23-18 edge in grabs -- and were controlling the offensive boards 7-2.
For all the speculation on whether Elissa Cunane would would for Wes Moore's squad, it was the smallest player on the court for NCST that was leading them in scoring in Raina Perez with 10 points. On the Louisville side, Evans had 10 points also.
The turning point of the contest came in the third quarter when NC State pushed a four-point lead (35-31) into a ten-point advantage (41-31) in a two-minute stretch. The Cards missed three shots in those two minutes and had two turnovers and NC State made all three of their attempts. Louisville would make a late third-quarter rally to cut the deficit to three after a Evans three with a minute to go but went into the fourth quarter down 49-44.
The first five minutes of the fourth quarter was another rough stretch for the Cardinals. NC State went on a 14-3 run to gain a 63-47 advantage and, despite Evans efforts, the Cards could get no closer than nine the rest of the way.
Walz on the effort:
"It was just a bad game. It was not one of our finest performances. That what we talked to the players about after the game in the locker room. What are we going to be defined as? Are we going to get back to work and improve in the areas we need to improve on, or are we going to hang our heads and allow one bad game to turn into two, then three and four? We talked about that. I've got a very resilient group, though, that's ready to get back to work."
Walz also gave credit where credit is due:
"In the second half, I thought they (NC State) did a great job offensively and that gave us some problems. We couldn't get a score-stop-score generated. Give NC State all the credit in the world. They played really hard tonight, they played physical and they're a really good basketball team. No question about it."
And, that pretty well sums it up. On leaving, Paulie and I heard one of the coaches comment that "that was a Final Four team that beat us tonight."
Key stats would include the WolfPack dominating the boards 44-29 and holding Louisville to 38.3 shooting on the night . No Cardinals other than Evans reached double figures, Cochran and Kianna Smith had eight points each -- Cochran led the Cards with nine rebounds. Walz played eight Cards in all, Evans seeing all 40 minutes of action. Van Lith played 34 minutes, Cochran 33, Smith 30, Dixon 26, Balogun 23 and Robinson 10. Norika Konno started the second half, but played just four minutes in all.
The Cards roll back into action Thursday night with a contest in Boston against the Eagles. Despite the loss, the Cards still are in first place in the ACC with a 9-1 conference mark, NC State is 7-1.
--sonja--
