Louisville vs. Middle Tennessee Postgame Notes and Quotes
December 09, 2017 | Women's Basketball
UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Postgame Notes (Middle Tennessee – Dec. 9)
Head Coach Jeff Walz Postgame Quotes
(Did you see this big of a win against a very good Middle Tennessee State team?)
"No. I wasn't expecting this by any means. I thought we had two pretty good days of practice, yesterday and then today at our shootaround. I thought the kids were dialed in. I thought we followed the scouting report extremely well. At the same time, they've got some kids hurt. Their starting point guard is not out there, she had a boot on tonight. So, we kind of used our defensive ability, our quickness, to try to speed the tempo of the game up, which we were able to do. I thought we did a great job playing scouting report defense. To not allow double figures in four quarters is pretty impressive, I don't care who you're playing. So, I was really pleased with our effort at the defensive end of the floor."
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(On what this win says about the team's abilities and how they're playing right now)
"I told our kids the other night, we've shown that we can defend. We had an unbelievable second half against Michigan. Our second and third quarters against Vanderbilt were great, and I challenged them. I said, 'You've proven to me that you can play back to back quarters.' The exciting thing for me was you can play a first half really well, and then you go into halftime and you get a 15-minute break, and it's can you bring that same intensity out after half? We did that with Vanderbilt. We played a really good second quarter, after 15 minutes we came out and actually played better defensively that quarter. So, I challenged them. I'm like 'I know we can do it. Now can we put three, four quarters together?' Tonight, I thought we did. They missed shots, there's no question, and we turned them over 31 times. But what happens is, when you start off defending and you make things difficult, when someone makes an open shot and you rush it because it's like 'Oh my god, I finally got one. Now I've got to shoot it.' It's not in rhythm, and I thought they had a few of them that were good looks, but they were just a little quicker than what they wanted to be."
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Postgame Notes (Middle Tennessee – Dec. 9)
- With the win, Louisville is now 6-1 all-time against Middle Tennessee and 2-0 against the Blue Raiders at the KFC Yum! Center.
- Louisville's 11-0 start is the second-best in school history, behind 15-0 open the 2006-07 season.
- Tonight's win was the ninth by a margin of 13 points or more this season.
- Asia Durr extended her streak to 50 consecutive games making at least 3-pointer.
- 32 points is the most points scored in the first quarter by Louisville so far in the 2017 season, three more than the previous threshold of 29.
- Leading by 42, Louisville set a new 2017-high for largest halftime lead. It was previously 35 against MSU.
- By halftime, Louisville surpassed Middle Tennessee's opponent scoring average.
- Having held the Blue Raiders to single-digit scoring quarters the entire game, Louisville has now held their opponents to single-digit scoring in 6 of the last 8Â quarters.
- Tonight's game was the eighth this season in which three or more Cardinals scored in double-figures. For Durr, it was her eighth double-digits scoring effort, the sixth for Jones, third for both Dunham and Evans this season.
- Kylee Shook set a personal and team season-high in blocks tonight with six.
- Arica Carter set a career-high and season team-high in assists with nine.
- Louisville set a new season-high with 26 assists tonight.
- Louisville forced 31 Middle Tennessee turnovers, the highest amount this season.
- Louisville scored their fewest amount of third and fourth quarter points this season, at 14 and 11, respectively.
- 26 points are the fewest allowed by Louisville to an opponent in 2017.
Head Coach Jeff Walz Postgame Quotes
(Did you see this big of a win against a very good Middle Tennessee State team?)
"No. I wasn't expecting this by any means. I thought we had two pretty good days of practice, yesterday and then today at our shootaround. I thought the kids were dialed in. I thought we followed the scouting report extremely well. At the same time, they've got some kids hurt. Their starting point guard is not out there, she had a boot on tonight. So, we kind of used our defensive ability, our quickness, to try to speed the tempo of the game up, which we were able to do. I thought we did a great job playing scouting report defense. To not allow double figures in four quarters is pretty impressive, I don't care who you're playing. So, I was really pleased with our effort at the defensive end of the floor."
Â
(On what this win says about the team's abilities and how they're playing right now)
"I told our kids the other night, we've shown that we can defend. We had an unbelievable second half against Michigan. Our second and third quarters against Vanderbilt were great, and I challenged them. I said, 'You've proven to me that you can play back to back quarters.' The exciting thing for me was you can play a first half really well, and then you go into halftime and you get a 15-minute break, and it's can you bring that same intensity out after half? We did that with Vanderbilt. We played a really good second quarter, after 15 minutes we came out and actually played better defensively that quarter. So, I challenged them. I'm like 'I know we can do it. Now can we put three, four quarters together?' Tonight, I thought we did. They missed shots, there's no question, and we turned them over 31 times. But what happens is, when you start off defending and you make things difficult, when someone makes an open shot and you rush it because it's like 'Oh my god, I finally got one. Now I've got to shoot it.' It's not in rhythm, and I thought they had a few of them that were good looks, but they were just a little quicker than what they wanted to be."
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Players Mentioned
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