By Whitney Spencer

St. Louis must be a town for the Cardinals. After falling behind 14 points in the first half and trailing by 12 at the break, the University of Louisville women’s basketball team finished strong to pull their second straight upset over a number one seed in the 2009 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, 61-59 over Oklahoma University, and to advance to Tuesday’s national championship game against the University of Connecticut Huskies.
Senior forward Angel McCoughtry finished the game with 18 points and 14 of those points came in the second half of the game. McCoughtry, along with the rest of the Cards, struggled in the first half of play and the team’s physical and emotional leader let her emotions get the best of her and was forced to sit early.
“I told Angel it was the worst I’ve seen her play,” Jeff Walz, women’s basketball head coach, said. “She was an embarrassment.”
McCoughtry knew her play wasn’t anywhere near where it needed to be for the Cards to win. Going 0 for 7 from the field in the first half and finishing the half with only four points, McCoughtry had to calm herself and find her rhythm. Some of her struggles were attributed to Oklahoma freshman Whitney Hand.
“She’s the heart and soul of that team,” McCoughtry said. “A freshman isn’t going to start for no reason. She hit three three’s on us….she makes that team go.”
As for the Oklahoma University Sooners, it was a tale of two halves. With a complete domination in the first half, they seemed to be firing on all cylinders. True to her play all season, senior center Courtney Paris grabbed 10 rebounds in the first half alone and finished with another double-double of 16 points and 16 rebounds. Looking poised to run away with the game, the Sooners allowed Louisville to come out after halftime on a 15-1 run. It didn’t help that Courtney Paris had to sit getting her third foul early in half. To add to the frustration the Sooners shooting was less than stellar as they finished shooting just 26.9 percent in the second half.
Still, even after a courageous comeback for the Cardinals, the Sooners had a chance to walk away with a win. Senior forward Candyce Bingham was fouled and put on the line for Louisville while they held a one point lead. She easily swished the first free throw but the second rimmed out and bounced to the corner of the court. After a scuffle for the ball Oklahoma came up with the ball with just seconds on the clock. They got the ball to a wide open junior guard Nyeshia Stevenson who released a three-point jumper with time winding down that rimmed out, but had everyone in the Scottrade Center convinced.
“In my head, it was going in,” Stevenson said. “I knew I was wide open. I was confident every second.”
“She made a big three late,” Walz said. “When that shot went up I did think it was going in because it looked good from where I was sitting.”
When asked about the promise she made earlier this year regarding the repayment of her $64,000 scholarship if the Sooners didn’t win the championship, Paris still vows to make good on that expensive promise.
 “I do make good on the guarantee,” Paris said after the national semifinal game. “Not today, though. Obviously, I don’t have $64,000 waiting, but I do make good on it.”
Today will mark the third meeting between the Huskies and the Cardinals this season. Connecticut has convincingly stopped the Cards both times, winning by an average of 33.5 points but being an underdog doesn’t bother the Cardinals because they know most people have them out of the tournament in Baton Rouge, when they played Louisiana State University on its home court.
“We can’t go into this game thinking about the other two games,” Bingham said after the game. “This is a bigger stage, and everybody is going to show up to play.”
No matter the outcome of tonight’s game against UConn, this Louisville Cardinal team will live in school history. Never has any women’s team been able to record this many wins, play in a Final Four game, and now play for a national championship. Underdog status seems to be working for the Cards.
“Nobody expected us to be here,” McCoughtry said. “We have not one high school All-American on our team, but these girls worked hard. I’m so proud of them.”