University of Louisville
West Virginia
Cardinals Fall at West Virginia 99-73
January 10, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 10, 2006
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville women's basketball team could not overcome an impressive first half shooting effort from West Virginia, falling 99-73 in WVU Coliseum on Tuesday evening. The Cardinals fall to 11-3 on the season and 2-1 in BIG EAST play while West Virginia improved to 9-4 on the season and 2-1 in league play. Freshman Angel McCoughtry led the Cardinals with a career-high 22 points and Helen Johnson finished with 14 points. Meg Bulger finished with 26 points for the Mountaineers.
"We didn't come out ready to play," said head coach Tom Collen. " We had to be ready for a real aggressive physical style of play and thew were the first team that we have run into like that. We knew they were going to play hard and I was disappointed that we never really played hard and that gave them confidence and they shot the ball well."
West Virginia broke open the first half with a 7-0 run to go up 27-11 with 9:02 left in the half. Johnson ended the Cardinal drought with a three-pointer at the 7:29 mark. West Virginia then went on an 8-3 run to go up 35-14 at the 5:33 mark. The Mountaineers capitalized off of Louisville's 13 turnovers in the first half and went into the lockerroom with a 49-24 advantage. West Virginia finished the half shooting an impressive 71.4 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from the three-point line. Louisville shot just 35.7 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from behind the arc.
The Cardinals cut the lead to 20 in the first five minutes but West Virginia went on a 7-0 run to go up 62-35 with 13:50 remaining in the half. Louisville used an 8-2 run led by McCoughtry to cut the lead to 20. Louisville would cut it an 18 point deficit with 5:24 remaining but the Mountaineers put the game away at the line.
Louisville finished the game shooting 42.2 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from behind the arc. West Virginia finished the game shooting 62.3 percent from the field and 52.6 percent from behind the arc. The Cardinals finished the game with a 37-32 rebounding edge but committed 21 turnovers.
The Cardinals will be back in action as they host No. 20 Notre Dame on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 1:00 p.m. in Freedom Hall.
