By Jocelyn Scurlock
No. 21 Louisville fell to the No. 20 Kentucky Wildcats in the Battle of the Bluegrass.
This is the second consecutive loss to Kentucky after seven straight victories previously.
Old habits
Louisville found themselves down 7-0 early due to Kentucky hitting from both the three-point line and inside the paint.
After switching to a man-to-man and forcing a turnover, the Cards found their footing. An aggressive drive to the basket from Tajianna Roberts got them right back into the game.
A block by Laura Ziegler leading to a transition three from Roberts fueled a momentum shift in the Card’s direction.
Louisville’s defense got stronger as the quarter went on and forced Kentucky to find creative ways to score.
The Cards took advantage of the Cat’s scoring drought and went on a run with a three from Ziegler and a coast-to-coast layup from Roberts to pull ahead by one point.
The two teams traded points for the rest of the quarter.
At the end of the first, Louisville only trailed 19-18.
Roberts started the second quarter on fire with both a layup and a three.
Ziegler also got involved hitting a three of her own, giving the Cards their largest lead of the game so far at 27-21.
Kentucky was able to force a turnover which gave them some momentum and allowed them to tie the game up.
The rivals continued back and forth, for a total of 16 lead changes in the first two quarters.
In the last few minutes of the second quarter, Louisville forced a turnover which led to an easy layup on the other end of the court.
Louisville went into halftime down 37-35.
The Card’s success in the first half was mainly due to Robert’s who logged 19 points.
No second chances
Louisville struggled immensely throughout the third, not really able to get any momentum going.
Kentucky also cooled off a bit when it came to scoring but the Cards were just unable to capitalize. They had a hard time securing defensive rebounds which gave the Wildcats 13 second-chance opportunities compared to their six.
After the Cats hit a three, Jeff Walz called a timeout, but the team was just not able to find a solution. Kentucky went on a 20-6 run to close out the quarter.
Louisville ended the quarter trailing 57-41.
The Cards seemed to get out to a better start to the fourth, with a three from Ziegler and a big time shot in the paint from Anaya Hardy.
However as time winded down, the Wildcats continued to make shots while Louisville entered a scoring drought.
With six minutes left, the Cards were down 13. Roberts hit a highly contested three to cut the lead to 10, but it just wasn’t enough.
Louisville fell to Kentucky 72-62.
End
The first two quarters of this game, the Cards were able to score from all areas of the court as well as limit Kentucky’s second-chance opportunities.
However, they just couldn’t seem to find a rhythm in the second half and that affected all aspects of their game.
They put up only 24 points in the paint compared to the Wildcats 40.
Roberts only ended up with 22 points after scoring 19 in the first half. Her lack of production was a huge reason for the Cards’ lack of success.
Luckily, it’s still extremely early in the season and Louisville still has the chance to be a dominant force in the NCAA this year.
They only logged four turnovers throughout the whole game which proved that they know how to take care of the ball. This will be extremely helpful as they continue to play tough opponents like South Carolina.
Overall, although it was a rough ending to this game, Louisville showed a lot of potential and if they can figure out a way to utilize all of their strengths at the same time, they could have a lot of success in future games.
Louisville is now 4-2 on the young season.
The Cards will be back home Nov. 28 to face Eastern Illinois.
Photo by Adam Mouchrani
