By Elizabeth Scanland
The No. 22 Louisville Cardinals lost big to the No. 2 UConn Huskies in the Champions Classic.
Ugly, just ugly
The Cards got off to a rough start after the Huskies went on an 8-2 scoring run early in the first quarter. UConn capped their run off with a three pointer from Sarah Strong, but the Cards responded with an and-one from Olivia Cochran.
This is where the good times ended, as Louisville struggled to get shots to fall and couldn’t make a stop on the defensive end. The Huskies ended the first quarter on a 20-5 run.
Louisville trailed 10-28.
To start the second quarter, Merrisah Russell came out hot with a layup and a three as a part of a 6-0 run from Louisville.
This didn’t last long for the Cards as they started to commit fouls and sloppy plays. It was all downhill from here as UConn continued to complety dominate on both sides of the ball scoring after turnovers, rebounding the ball well, and shotting efficiently, ending the half on a 21-8 run.
Louisville trailed 24-49 at halftime.
The second half was about the same and nothing really seemed to improve for Louisville. They only scored nine points during the third quarter, including only scoring two points in the first nine minutes of the quarter. The best period came during the fourth in which Louisville scored 19 points in which they has better success rebounding the ball and defensive efforts. However, the points were clearly just garbage time points, as the game was over long before.
Louisville lost 52-85.
Taking a step back
There is no way to sugarcoat this loss, it was bad.
Louisville shot 25.8% from the field, 22.2% from three, and had a total of 28 rebounds compared to UConn’s 52.
They never looked in it from the start and looked rattled with nerves. However, despite a bad game, Louisville was able to limit turnovers this game only having 11 on the night and slowly started to clean it up during the fourth quarter.
The Cards have had many issues this season, but issues are expected with a young team. While, many fans would have liked a win and this bad loss stings, Louisville’s potential is still so high going forward if they can clean up their errors.
The Cards move to 5-4 on the season and will play Grambling State Thursday at home.
Photo Courtesy // Mallory Peak, Louisville Athletics
