By Dalton Ray —
En route to their 11th win in as many tries, No. 4 women’s basketball vaporized Middle Tennessee State 80-26.
The 54-point win caught coach Jeff Walz off guard.
“I wasn’t expecting this by no means,” Walz said. “I thought we had a good two days of practice … we followed the scouting report extremely well. At the same, they had some players hurt. We used our defense ability, our quickness to speed the tempo of the game up.”
The Cardinals forced a season-high 31 turnovers and hit 56 percent from the field. Louisville scored 34 points off turnovers.
Junior Asia Durr led the way for the Cards, scoring 19.
The Raiders didn’t score more than seven points in a quarter.
Junior Sam Fuerhing forced a turnover on Middle Tennessee’s first possession and it was all downhill from there. MTSU committed nine more turnovers over the course of the first quarter.
Louisville was on pace to set a new season-low with three points allowed, but MTSU’s Charity Savage hit a three just before the quarter finished, making it 32-6.
Walz started to get deep into bench subs midway through the second quarter. Louisville forced nine turnovers in the quarter, making it 19 in the half.
The Cards led 55-13 at the half, shooting 71 percent.
Louisville’s pressure stayed the same, forcing nine turnovers, but their shooting percentage dropped from 71 percent to 38 percent.
The Cards cruised to the finish in the fourth quarter, only allowing six points.
You can follow Dalton Ray on Twitter @dray5477.
Photo by Dalton Ray / The Louisville Cardinal
