University of Louisville
XAVIER
Women's Basketball Defeats Xavier 78-64
December 10, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 10, 2005
Louisville, Ky. - The Louisville women's basketball team defeated a tenacious Xavier team 78-64 in Freedom Hall Saturday evening. Four Cardinals scored in double figures as junior Helen Johnson led all scorers with a career-high 22 points. Missy Taylor finished with 15 while Angel McCoughtry finished with 13 and Jazz Covington finished with 12 points. Covington led the Cardinals on the boards with seven rebounds. Michele Miller led Xavier with 21 points.
"This was a good win for us," said head coach Tom Collen. "This was a good basketball team that we beat. I think it's a team that will be in the NCAA tournament. I think that things are starting to come together for us. We're becoming a team that can score a lot of points. We were a little afraid pressing this team, but we put in a new press that I thought was effective against them."
Louisville jumped out to a 4-0 lead to start the game. Then Miller hit a three-pointer to spark a 10-2 Xavier run to take a 10-6 lead at the 15:15 mark in the first half. The Musketeers held a five point lead with just over 11 minutes left. Johnson and McCoughtry sparked a 14-4 Cardinal run to go up 24-19 at the 7:33 mark. Louisville built its biggest lead at 34-20 with just under three minutes remaining. Xavier finished the final minutes with an 11-2 run to cut the lead to 36-31 at the half.
The Cardinals started the second half with a 5-0 run to go up 41-31 in the first two minutes. Louisville built a 58-45 lead with 11:08 left to play then Xavier's Miranda Green hit back-to-back treys to cut the lead to seven at the 10 minute mark. After trading baskets, Suntana Gunderson hit another trey to cut the Louisville lead to four with 7:48 remaining.
Covington nailed a three-pointer on the next possession, sparking a 10-3 Cardinal run to go up 70-59 with 4:53 remaining. The Cardinal defense held Xavier to just five points in the final four minutes for the win.
Louisville finished the game shooting an impressive 51.9 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from behind the arc. Xavier finished the game shooting 36.7 percent from the field and 42.4 percent from behind the arc. Louisville held a 39-27 rebounding edge.
The Cardinals will be back in action against Northern Colorado on Thursday, December 15 in Freedom Hall at 7:00 p.m.
