TicketsCats Fall Short at Louisville, 61-58
Contact: Geoff Wiswell
2/25/2005
Toni Slaughter led the Bearcats with 15 points and six rebounds. |
LOUISVILLE, Ky. ? As is usually the case when the two rivals get together, Cincinnati and Louisville battled for 40 minutes before the Cards came away with a 61-58 win on Friday night in Cardinal Arena.
It was the regular season finale for both teams, as UC fell to 9-18 overall and 4-10 in the league. U of L moved to 20-7, 11-3 on the year.
The Bearcats open play in the 2005 Pepsi Women?s Conference USA Tournament on Thursday, March 3 in Charlotte. UC will be the 11th-seed in the tourney with an opponent to be determined when the brackets are released on Sunday.
Toni Slaughter scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds to lead the Bearcats and Karen Twehues added 11, making 3-of-4 shots from behind the arc. Leading scorer Anne Stephens was held to four points, but helped hold Louisville leader Jazz Covington to just four field goals.
Covington did lead the Cards with 15 points and seven rebounds, making 7-of-10 free throws, while Missy Taylor and Katie Olson added 12.
Both teams shot well, with Louisville at 51 percent and UC at 48 percent. The Bearcats committed 20 turnovers that led to 26 Cardinal points, but only four came after the break.
?We had too many turnovers and gave up too many offensive rebounds,? said head coach Laurie Pirtle. ?We struggled to find plays that we could count on. We just seemed uncomfortable on offense.?
?We need to execute our press-breakers,? she added. ?We were tentative on offense and we were still in the game.?
With 10 minutes left, four different Bearcats scored in a 9-2 run that cut the Louisville lead to 49-45 with 7:56 to go.
The Cards made just two field goals over the final eight minutes, living at the free throw line just enough to stay ahead.
Slaughter hit a three-pointer and followed with a jumper get UC within two, 57-55, with 1:54 to go. That was as close as the Bearcats got, however, as they missed a three on the next trip and Covington made two free throws to make the lead four.
Stephens got open underneath with 32 seconds left to close to two again, but Angel Bradley raced down the court in just six seconds for a lay-in that clinched the win.
The Bearcats started the game red hot with Twehues making a three-pointer and Micah Harvey adding a trey and two free throws for an 8-0 lead after two minutes. UC held Louisville without a field goal for over four minutes.
UC kept it up, as Slaughter made consecutive baskets and Treasure Humphries drilled a triple for a 15-3 UC lead with just over six minutes gone.
The Cards scored the next six points to close to within six, but Humphries answered with a lay-up and Edwina Williams hit a jumper for a 19-9 lead with 10:13 to go.
At that point UC had made 7-of-10 shots from the field. The Bearcats, however, would not get another field goal until under two minutes were left. U of L kept the defensive pressure on, forcing UC into 14 first-half turnovers and scored 21 of the next 22 points.
Jessica Huggins started the run with the Cards only three-pointer of the half and Olson seven of her 12 first-half points in the run. Her lay-in with 7:05 to go finally tied the game at 20-20.
Bradley followed with two-straight scores and Olson and Taylor each hit jumper for a 30-20 advantage with 2:24 to go.
Twehues ended the drought with another three-pointer and Slaughter scored on a putback with 10 seconds left in the half to narrow the margin to 32-25 at the half.
UC made just 2-of-9 shots in the final 10 minutes to shoot .474 for the half. Louisville, which shot over 70 percent in the first half of the first meeting between the schools, made 13-of-25 shots (.520).
The Bearcats did make 4-of-6 three-pointers, but U of L scored 18 points off of the UC miscues and committed just nine turnovers itself.
Jazz Covington had seven points and five rebounds at the break. Twehues, Slaughter and Humphries each had six points to lead the Bearcats.
Stephens made a pair of foul shots to open the second half and Twehues hit another three-pointer to close to 34-30. After a U of L three-point play, Harvey and Twehues made consecutive scored to pull to 37-34 with 14:46 to go.
Taylor responded for the Cards, scoring five points in a 7-0 run that pushed the lead back to 11 with 11:15 to go.