After suffering just their second loss of the season Sunday against UConn, fourth ranked Louisville (24-2) defeated Temple 60-50 on Wednesday night at the KFC YUM! Center.
Shoni Schimmel led Cardinal scorers with 21 points and added six rebounds.
Louisville stretched the lead to 13 early in the second half, but Temple remained close due to the Cardinals shooting 12 of 26 from the free throw line.
“I’ve never seen Asia Taylor going 2 for 8 from the free throw line before. Shoni goes 6 for 10, its focus and concentration, so it’s an area we are going to have to continue to get back in,” Walz said.
Despite struggling from the line, Taylor finished with her fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Antonita Slaughter shot 3 of 5 from three, finishing with 12 points.
“Coming out and hitting my first one gave me a lot of confidence. Knowing that my teammates have confidence in me, when I make that first one the hole gets a lot bigger. So, I just knocked them down, that’s what I do,” Slaughter said.
Sara Hammond added seven points and nine rebounds.
Even though Louisville struggled offensively, the defense held Temple to 37.9 percent from the field while the Owls committed 17 turnovers.
“Defense definitely gets us going on offense so that’s our main focus- rebounding and defending. Coach Walz always tells us go out there defend and rebound and the offense is going to come to us,” Schimmel said. “It’s just something to learn from and I think we picked it up better in the second half. We defended a lot better than we did and it helped us get better offense.”
Bria Smith was held out of her third consecutive game because of knee trouble, but looks to return Sunday when Louisville plays at Memphis.
