University of Louisville
Vanderbilt
Women's Basketball Falls to Vandy in Overtime
November 29, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2003
Nashville, Tenn. - The Vanderbilt Commodores hit 7 of 8 free throws in overtime to defeat the Louisville Cardinals 73-68. Freshman Jazz Covington led the Cardinals with a career-high 27 points. Louisville native Jenni Benningfield led all scorers with 34 points. Sara Nord finished with 11 points and Katie Olson added 10 for the Cardinals.
"I think we are a better basketball team than we were when we left five days ago," said head coach Tom Collen. "We knew this was going to be a hard stretch when we left and they really stepped up and showed they were capable of playing good basketball. I think Jazz Covington showed that she is capable of being a big time player for us. We just need to improve and get ready for another tough stretch next week."
With 9:54 remaining in regulation, the Cards had their biggest lead of the half at 53-48 when Olson nailed a three-pointer and Kim Graham got a steal under the basket to score an easy layup. The Commodores then went on a 5-0 run capped by a trey from Hilary Hager to cut the Cardinal lead to one.
Hager nailed another three-pointer with 2:23 remaining in the second half to cut the Cardinal lead to 62-60. Benningfield got free for a layup with five seconds remaining to put the game into overtime.
Covington scored nine straight points as the Cardinals went on a 13-4 run midway through the first half to go up 26-17 with 7:47 remaining in the half. Covington sat down for a break and Benningfield came back in to spark a Commodore run of 12-0 to take a 29-26 lead with 3:34 left in the half.
Covington came back in the game to give the Cardinals its first basket in four minutes to cut the lead to one. Vanderbilt finished the half with a 33-31 lead over Louisville. Covington had 15 points in the half and Benningfield finished the half with 18 points.
The Cardinals will travel to Lexington to take on intrastate rival Kentucky on Dec. 3 in Rupp Arena at 7:00 p.m.
