The Orange Crush Louisville's ACC Title Hopes

Yesterday I said that I was nervous about playing Syracuse because of how Louisville took them to the woodshed up in the Carrier Dome.  Today it seemed my fears were well-founded because the Orange came out with more fire and focus than the Cardinals.  Alexis Peterson in particular seemed to have taken the loss in January as a personal affront and she aggressively took it to the Cards' defense while scoring 19 points in 29 minutes.

In his post-game interview, Coach Walz said that the team didn't follow the scouting report.  When asked in what way in particular he responded, "Well, I mean, we start the game and we give Peterson a three, and then we give Ford back-to-back threes, which I guess when we watched her make three in a row last night, I guess we didn't think she could do that again....In the first period is where I thought the game was won for them.  It took so much effort for us to get caught back up that we just physically and mentally got tired."

So, good/bad news.  Bad news first:  there have been about three games in the last 2 years where it seems Mariya Moore is dwelling in a dimension where basketball does not exist.  When she checks out, she checks ALL the way out.  Unfortunately this was one of those games.  Zero points, 1 rebound, 3 turnovers.  Woof.  Perhaps more concerning was the Cards' rebounding.  Coach Walz said, "You know, we just got killed on the glass.  I know when you look at it we only got out-rebounded by two, but we got out-rebounded at big times.  I think we had a four point lead there and all we've got to do is get a defensive board and it turns into a three point play for them.  We got out-hustled and out-toughed at crunch time."   Being out-hustled and out-toughed as you head into the post-season is....not ideal.

As for the good news, Asia Durr filled in for Mariya and got a career-high 25 points off of 8/17 shooting.  Taja Cole played solid minutes.  "[She] did some good things for us.  Three assist sand no turnovers against that pressure, I was proud of her," said Coach Walz.  Myisha Hines-Allen continued to be a dominant presence scoring 27 points and grabbing 12 rebounds for another double-double.  She also did this:

Myisha Hines-Allen is a power forward. pic.twitter.com/iIhviwTfJp

— Jonathan Lintner (@JonathanLintner) March 5, 2016

Holy shmoly.

Now we wait for Selection Sunday to see where/who Louisville will be playing next.  The tournament begins on March 18th.