University of Louisville
Cincinnati
Women's Basketball Defeats Bearcats In Weekend Sweep, 72-71
January 16, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 16, 2005
Cincinnati, OH - The Louisville Cardinals (11-5) stormed into Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati to face the Bearcats (5-11) on Sunday afternoon looking to win their third straight game against their rival Bearcats. Cincinnati came into the game with five consecutive losses under their belt. While Louisville came off of a big win at UAB last Sunday 74-59. In an exciting game the Cardinals defeated the Bearcats 72-71 in a thriller.
Louisville started the game with two big three-point baskets from Missy Taylor in the first half. From that point Louisville struggled on containing the play of Cincinnati's Karen Twehues and Leslie Knoch. Both teams continued to shoot well from the field and at the first media timeout Cincinnati was in lead 14-13. Louisville then went on a five point scoring run to regain the lead from the Bearcats.
Cincinnati called a timeout with 5:24 left in the first half after Louisville took the 29-24 lead. Things only got worse for the Bearcats as Louisville went on a 10-0 run at the 2:11 mark that was capped off by a Yuliya Tokova three-point basket. Louisville continued the up-beat play by extending the lead to 42-28 by the end of the first half of play.
Louisville received a helpful jump-start from the bench who accounted for 17 of the Cardinals first half points. Louisville shot an unprecedented 73.9 percent from the field in the first half. Leading the way for the Cardinals in the point category was Jazz Covington with 14 points. Covington was also a perfect 6-6 from the field. Louisville, furthermore had, an even scoring attack with eight points from Taylor and Connie Neal respectively.
Louisville came out of the locker room with the same intensity level as they ended the first half with. Jessica Huggins shot up six points for the Cardinals and added tough defensive pressure on the Bearcats. A three-point basket by Katie Olsen helped Louisville maintain their 55-44 lead with 10:41 left in the second half. The Cards really worked hard underneath the basket trying to stop Cincinnati's Anne Stephens who was sparking the Bearcat offense with 10 points in less then eleven minutes.
Covington continued her dominance as she hit both free throws with 6:09 left in the game to widen the Cardinals lead 64-57. She followed that up with a big put-back underneath the Louisville basket.
However, two big three-point baskets were hit from Cincinnati's Twehues to bring the Bearcats back into the game at the 2:26 mark of the second half. Then two clutch steals from Bellvia May resulted in a quick basket that brought Louisville's lead down to a one-point lead with 1:06 left in the contest (68-67).
The game changed hands at the free-throw line when the Bearcats Michah Harvey hit 2 free throws to give Cincinnati the lead 71-70 with 32.6 seconds left in the game. Louisville's Covington responded in a big way with a clutch jumper that gave the lead back to the Cardinals with 0.9 seconds remaining on the game clock.
Angel Bradley stole the inbound pass from the Bearcats and the Cardinals went on to win an exciting game in Fifth Third Arena 72-71.
Louisville finished the game shooting 64.3 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from behind the arc, both were season-high for the Cardinals. Cincinnati finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field and 52.6 percent from behind the line. Both teams finished with 23 rebounds.
Louisville improves to 11-5 on the year and 2-1 in conference play. They will be back on the hardwood Wednesday night as they face TCU in Freedom Hall at 7:00 p.m. The Cardinals will be happy to be back at home as they have not played in Freedom Hall in over a month. The game will be the Cardinals first television appearance this year being broadcasted locally on WFTE 58 Television.
