The first half was not a thing of beauty for either team. Neither team seemed to be in a good rhythm. Louisville was going into the second half only shooting 14% from the 3-point line (1-7) and held a slim 4 point lead. In the second half the Cards seem to lock in a little […]
The first half was not a thing of beauty for either team. Neither team seemed to be in a good rhythm. Louisville was going into the second half only shooting 14% from the 3-point line (1-7) and held a slim 4 point lead. In the second half the Cards seem to lock in a little more at both sides of the floor. However, in the 4th quarter Cal cut a double-digit lead down to 6. At that point Louisville went on an 8-0 run and that was the knockout blow for the rest of the way and the Cards notched a win to make them 11-0 in the conference to give them their best start in ACC play.
The Cards balanced attacked presented itself tonight with different players stepping up at different points in the game. Elif Istanbulluoglu got knocked down, beaten and bruised but still managed to score 17 points, grab 7 rebounds, and dish out 4 assists. Tajianna Roberts returned to form with 21 points. Laura Ziegler had 12 points and 5 rebounds.
Coach Walz said, “I thought it was a gutty game today. Cal played extremely well. Cal was very physical on the defensive end. They did a lot of really good things.” He said, “That third quarter we finally started moving the basketball and sharing the ball. Then offensively we looked so much better. We scored 71 points tonight and it was a poor offensive performance I thought for us which really shows you how good we could be.”
He was pleased with Elif’s game, “I was really happy for her. She battled. She was down low getting beat up…. she hit a huge 3 for us, big offensive rebounds, and an and-1.”
On Taj’s game he said, “I was really excited for her. I thought her tempo— how she played, how she shot the ball— her shot was quicker and she got into it faster.”
Next up the Cards come back to the Yum for one of the biggest games of the season against Duke. Coach Walz said, “We’re both 11-0 in the league. We only play each other once. We need 13 to 14,000 in there. It’s gonna be great basketball. I’m hoping people will show up and give these kids the love and appreciation I think they really deserve.” The game is at 7PM and can be seen on ESPN.
Category: General Sports
