By Glypie Grider And Catherine Laroche
Tied at 49 with three seconds remaining, senior Angel Bradley hit the second of her two free throws to give the Cards a one-point victory over Houston Sunday night. In front of an ESPN-televised audience in Freedom Hall, the Cardinals defeated the Cougars, the only undefeated team in Conference USA play.
The first half saw 10 lead-changes and three ties. Louisville kept the lead at the start of the second half, but the Cougars kept clawing back. With less than 15 minutes in the game, sophomore Jazz Covington hit back-to-back jumpers for the 40-30 Cardinal lead. Houston then went on a 6-0 run.
With just under four minutes of play, Houston freshman Kadi Creel hit a three-pointer and Crystal Simpson hit two free throws to cut the lead to three.
At the 1:27 mark, Sancho Lyttle coverted two free throws to tie the game at 47. Louisville’s Katie Olson hit a jumper on the left side with 56 seconds remaining to give the Cards a 49-47 advantage.
Kiemona Harris hit a jumper with 33 seconds remaining to tie the game. Jessica Huggins’ three-point attempt bounced off the rim, and Bradley drew the rebound and a foul.
Bradley led all scorers with 16 points. Covington had 12 points while Missy Taylor led the Cards with 10 rebounds. Lyttle led Houston with 15 points.
Louisville vs. TCU
The U of L women’s basketball team had to overcome a double-digit deficit to pull out a six-point victory over TCU on Friday.
But the victory didn’t come easily.
Shortly after tip-off, the Horned Frogs took off with an 8-1 lead. With a lay-up from Taylor, the Cardinals managed to cut the lead to 8-5. But that wasn’t enough to stop TCU. With only seven minutes left in the first half, they went up 16-5 after an 8-0 run. Junior guard Jessica Huggins helped cut TCU’s lead to nine with two free throws, but the Horned Frogs had the 31-16 lead at half time.
The Cards opened the second half in the full-court press, which helped spark an 11-0 run. With 16:55 left in the game, sophomore Jazz Covington cut TCU’s lead to 31-27 with a lay-up. But at 14 minutes, TCU’s Nikki Newton and Sandora Irvin opened the lead back up to 38-27.
The Cardinals were not about to give up the game. They continued to press, while Taylor connected on a lay-up in transition to put the lead in single-digits again. With only 12 minutes left in the game, TCU had a 42-31 lead. But then, a three-pointer by Covington sparked a 15-0 run which gave the Cards a four-point lead with just seven minutes left.
After two free throws by TCU, U of L went on a 7-0 run from a three-pointer from Covington to bring the lead up to 53-44. TCU sliced the lead to four twice in the final minute, but the Cards connected on six of eight free throws to win 63-57.
Covington led all scorers with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Taylor tallied 14 points, eight rebounds and a career-high five blocks.
“We didn’t have our best effort in the first half,” Taylor said. “Coach Collen wasn’t too impressed with the first half. But he said that he was proud of how we stepped up, came back and never gave up.”
