By Jesse Welte

Four players scored double digits as the No. 19 Louisville Cardinals women’s basketball team defeated the DePaul Blue Demons on Saturday afternoon.

Angel McCoughtry led the way, recording a double-double with 29 points and 12 rebounds, shooting 11-of-20 from the field and 7-of-7 from the free throw line, guiding the Cards to beat DePaul for the first time since 2001.

“Angel is a special player. She’s a playmaker both offensively and defensively and a player who rebounds like she does makes her a special player,” said Depaul’s head coach Doug Bruno.

Both teams battled back and forth in the first half as the Cards took a 38-37 lead into halftime. The second half saw change as the Cards turned up the defensive pressure, allowing them to open up a 62-49 lead on the heels of a 15-3 run midway through the half.

“We wanted to change things up a bit. We didn’t want to sit back and let them see the same thing. We watched to change defenses as much as we could,” said head U of L coach Tom Collen.

Jazz Covington turned in another solid performance for the Cardinals (21-2, 7-2 Big East), with a double-double on 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Yuliya Tokova also had 13 points. Chauntise Wright came off the bench, turning in a dominating effort in the paint. She did not miss a shot going 7-of-7 from the field and 1-of-1 from the charity stripe to finish with 15 points. As a team, the Cards shot 52 percent overall.

Collen said, “This was one of our better offensive games. We did a good job getting the ball inside and scoring in the paint. This was just a really good win for us.”

DePaul fell to 14-9, 4-6 in the Big East. The Blue Demons were led in scoring by Allie Quigley with 24 points while Jenna Rubino scored 16.

Louisville will look to extend their win streak on January 14 when they travel to the Joyce Center in South Bend, Ind. and play Notre Dame.

Covington said, “We need to stay in the gym shooting so we can keep it up and keep on winning.”

Notre Dame currently resides in the middle of the pack in the Big East. They have shown that they can win big games this season however, upsetting then ranked No. 9 Purdue on Dec. 6, earlier this season. They also played a close game with Big East rival and No. 18 Marquette a couple weeks ago, falling short in a 71-62 loss.

The Fighting Irish are led by junior guard Charel Allen, who averages 15.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. Also key for the Irish is freshman guard Ashley Barlow who averages 10.3 points per game and has shown that she can be an excellent three point shooter.

Louisville will have to rely on its defensive pressure, along with its offensive success in order to win its fifth game in a row. Covington feels like they are in a position to win many more games this season.

“You bring them and we take them on, one by one…I feel like we’re going to come out on top. We don’t expect to lose,” said Covington.

The Cardinals will play at Notre Dame on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.