Louisville falls to #20 Miami 79-73

If you’re a fan of both Louisville’s men’s and women’s basketball then this week has felt like the movie Groundhog Day. In this case the women’s team got a nice lead against #20 Miami only to watch it slowly evaporate in the second half. The Cards were up 37-29 to start the second and did not score again until Sam Fuehring banked in a jumper at the 6:11 mark in the 3rd quarter. Still Louisville maintained a slight lead until 1:24 left in the game when Miami went ahead 70-68 on an Emese Hof layup. From that point the Cards had good looks but missed shots and the Canes came away with the rebounds and ultimately the victory.

Dana Evans finished the game with 14 points and 4 assists. Both Bionca Dunham and Kylee Shook finished with 12 apiece. Asia Durr led Louisville in scoring with 16 points, but after the game she said, “I sucked today. I played like butt.” She added, “This was a regular season game. That’s it. Of course, you hate to lose. That’s part of it....It sucks. It really does suck but you know you have to move on from it.” Kylee Shook piggybacked off Asia’s comment with “Yep. Can’t let one lead to another.”

Coach Walz said, “To start that 3rd quarter I think we got 3 offensive rebounds and then 3 great looks and missed them. That’s where if we come out and make that—we knock down a bucket to start that quarter—now you’ve got some excitement. You’ve got some energy. But unfortunately I think we went four or five minutes in that quarter and didn’t score in that 3rd quarter and that’s just a killer.”

However, he said, “Scoring-wise...we scored enough points to win. That’s the thing....when we score 70 we normally win but unfortunately for us we were just really bad defensively.” On Miami he said, “Defensively they did a really nice job of scheming....They challenged our players who aren’t great players to shoot. I gotta give her [Coach Katie Meier] credit. She stuck with it the entire game. She stuck with that game plan, and it worked.”

When asked about Bionca Dunham playing sparingly in the final quarter despite a strong performance on the day Coach Walz said, “Offensively we were trying to spread the floor some more and Kylee gives us that ability to kind of spread things out. Where B was scoring in the paint...but they [Miami] were all packed in.”

Asia Durr said, “I’m pretty sure we all are shocked. We didn’t expect to lose...but things happen. We have to learn from it. This is part of our journey. This is another chapter to add to our book....This is a huge game where we can learn from the things we didn’t do well and apply it when we need it.”

The Cards get the chance to apply what they learned from this game on Thursday, February 21st when they travel to Charlottesville for a rematch with Virginia. The game is at 7PM.