By Derek DeBurger

The Louisville Cardinals pulled off a hard-fought win in a chippy season opener against rival Cincinnati Bearcats.

This season opener, like many under head coach Jeff Walz, was a bit of a strange one. Twelve different players saw the court in the first quarter alone, with 10 scoring. UMass transfer Sydney Taylor was the leading scorer of the night with 16 points on six-of-13 shooting from the field.

Though 10 different players scored for the Cards, the offense didn’t exactly come easy. As a team, the Cards only shot 39% from the field and 29% from three. Louisville also had 14 turnovers to only 11 assists.

What kept Louisville in this game, and ultimately gave them the win, was the relentless defense for 40 minutes. The Cards held the Bearcats to 38% from the field and just 23% from three, all while forcing 21 turnovers to just eight assists. This was an elite defensive performance that bodes very well for the rest of the season.

Coach Walz likes to play lots of players early in seasons to find his rotation naturally through the course of meaningful game-time, but with Louisville’s tough non-conference schedule Walz is going to need to shorten the lineup quickly.

One surprising player, however, who got meaningful minutes was true freshman Elif Istanbulluoglu from Turkey. Elif was talked about very little this offseason, but she looked fantastic despite not necessarily filling the stat sheet.

Returning big Olivia Cochran looked to pick up right where she left off, scoring seven points with 10 rebounds; she provided an invaluable energy boost whenever she stepped on the court.

Louisville won the game by a score of 77-59, but the game was much closer than the final score shows. Louisville had trouble separating from Cincinnati for most of the game, only distancing from the Bearcats with pivotal runs at the end of each half. With the win Monday, Walz is now 312-27 as a coach at Louisville when scoring 70 or more points.

There is a lot to work on offensively, but this was a very promising win for the Cards as they start off 1-0 on the year.

Photo Courtesy // U of L Women’s Basketball