University of Louisville
VERMONT
No. 9 Louisville Downs Vermont, 67-56
December 21, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Louisville coach Jeff Walz promised his players four days off for Christmas as a reward for a busy early season schedule.
For awhile during his team's sloppy 67-56 win over Vermont on Sunday, it appeared some of the ninth-ranked Cardinals had gone home a little early.
Louisville survived a sub-par performance by star Angel McCoughtry and 22 turnovers to hold off pesky Vermont 67-56 on Sunday. The Cardinals (10-1) won their fifth straight behind 15 points, five assists and four rebounds from Deseree' Byrd and 14 points and eight rebounds from Candyce Bingham.
Winning when McCoughtry doesn't play well is a sign of progress, Walz said, even if the Cardinals played like they were distracted by the prospect of a little home cooking.
"It's very encouraging," Walz said. "Des, for the progress she's made from our exhibition game until now is remarkable. I put her up there with anybody in our league at the point guard spot. She's still got some things to learn but for a kid that has never played (point guard) I'm really pleased with how far she's come."
Byrd said Walz warned the Cardinals about getting ahead of themselves, but it didn't stop them from playing like a team with other things on its mind.
"Some of (us) had our bags packed in the locker room," Byrd said.
Hopefully the Cardinals can hold onto their luggage better than they held onto the ball against the Catamounts (5-5). While Vermont's defense was solid, it helped that the Cardinals continually threw the ball away or tried to make the hard pass when the easy one would do.
"It was a lack of focus," Bingham said. "I thought we were going too fast. We were more anxious."
Vermont's energetic play gave the Cardinals reason to be worried. Sy Janousek led the Catamounts with 18 points and May Kotsopoulos added 12 as Vermont managed to keep it close despite an off day for leading scorer Courtnay Pilypaitis. The junior was held to a season-low three points on 1-of-5 shooting and turned it over 13 times.
"For us to hold her to three points and five shot attempts, I thought we did a very good job," Walz said.
As poorly as the Cardinals played at time on offense, their defense was just as good. Vermont shot just 37 percent from the floor and turned it over a season-high 32 times.
Louisville turned the miscues into 30 points the other way, helping the Cardinals get by despite McCoughtry's struggles. The senior All-American managed a season-low 12 points in 24 foul-plagued minutes, shooting just 5-of-12 from the field and 0-for-4 at the free-throw line.
