By Andrew Krumme
Louisville finished second overall in the conference, and despite their best efforts, finished second in the Conference USA tournament over the weekend. Louisville sophomore Jazz Covington was named to the C-USA All-Tournament team for her efforts.
TCU pulled off a huge upset against top-seeded and No. 11-ranked DePaul to face the Cardinals in the championship round of the conference tourney. TCU upset the Cards 60-41 Sunday at 5 p.m. in Charlotte, N.C.
Louisville stayed with the Horned Frogs for most of the match, keeping the TCU lead within a couple of points until 8 minutes were left in the game. Senior Angel Bradley hit a 4-point play for the Cards to bring Louisville within five, and it looked like the Cards had the momentum they needed to stop the surging Horned Frogs. However, things went the complete opposite for U of L as Texas Christian finished out the game on a 17-3 run.
Conference USA Player of the Year Sandora Irwin carried TCU in the game and the entire tournament. She scored 14 of her 21 points in the second half on the way to being named C-USA Tournament Most Valuable Player.
TCU’s Ashley Davis scored all 13 of her points in the second half, but Louisville’s defense forced her to miss all four of her first half 3-point attempts.
“We lost Davis a few times and that hurt us,” Louisville head coach Tom Collen said. “That’s what happens when you have someone who can hit the three,” he said.
Covington scored 19 points for the Cardinals. Louisville suffered a setback when it lost starting forward Yuliya Tokova, who left the game at the 16:31 mark of the first half with an injury to her right knee and did not return.
Louisville received a bye for the first round of the tournament, coming in with the second seed. The team took advantage of its day off and ravaged Marquette 69-54 in the quarterfinals.
Sophomore Katie Olson paced Collen’s squad with a career-high 20 points.
Collen realized that Olson was feeling the three and let her loose. “She was outstanding. I usually don’t let her shoot those threes, but you could see it in her eyes,” Collen said. Olsen made two 3-pointers.
Sparked by the sophomore’s offensive outburst, Louisville used two separate runs to widen the gap between Marquette and run away with the game. A 10-2 run in the opening moments of the second half put the Cards up to a comfortable 34-19 margin. However, the Golden Eagles came storming back to slash the deficit to 10 with less than 12 minutes remaining. The Cards quickly diminished any hopes of a Marquette upset by responding with a 7-0 run to put any hopes for an upset to rest.
“This team is evolving into a team that has several weapons and that is what you need to take it to the next level,” Collen said.
Louisville then faced Houston, which had escaped a tight 3-point overtime win against Charlotte. This was a game of runs as both teams went on several scoring spurts. However, the sophomore tandem of Olson and Covington were too much in the end as Louisville used some great field goal shooting down the stretch to pull away from Houston 56- 48. Covington and Olson combined for 29 points and carried the Cards to the finals.
The victory gives TCU (23-9) its second conference tournament championship in three seasons and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. As of press time, Louisville (22-8) was still uncertain of its NCAA appearance.
