TicketsJan. 20, 2009
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Louisville forward Candyce Bingham stood at the podium after the seventh-ranked Cardinals dispatched Cincinnati 66-50 for their 14th straight victory, looked straight at the cameras and went for it.
Sure the senior knows Louisville will be a heavy underdog against No. 1 Connecticut next Monday, but she's tired of hearing about how nobody can hang with the Huskies.
"It's UConn, they're good, they're supposed to be good, but they're very beatable," Bingham said Tuesday night after scoring 10 points and grabbing seven rebounds against the Bearcats. "It's not invincible. It's not anything undoable."
For the first 20 minutes against Cincinnati, the Cardinals' play seemed to back up Bingham's tough talk as Louisville (19-1, 6-0 Big East) took a 24-point halftime lead.
The problem, though, was a sometimes sloppy second half that let the Bearcats (13-5, 3-2) hang around. It was the kind of dip in intensity the Cardinals know would cost them against nation's top team.
"We've got to come ready to play 40 minutes," Louisville forward Angel McCoughtry said. "Second half we were just too sluggish. We cannot afford to do that."
Still, 20 minutes of steady play were more than enough to avoid the upset. McCoughtry led the Cardinals with 23 points, nine rebounds and eight steals as Louisville scored the game's first 11 points and overwhelmed Cincinnati with fullcourt pressure.
"We got them a little frustrated and passive," Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. "That's how we play. I was really pleased with that."
Louisville needed 12 minutes to build a 20-point lead and was up 40-16 at halftime, with McCoughtry outscoring the Bearcats 18-16.
"We just dug such a hole," Cincinnati coach J. Kelley Hall said. "With a team like Louisville, you're not going to get out of it. The game was lost right there."
Still, the Bearcats made the Cardinals keep working even after the lead ballooned to 27. Cincinnati nearly got within single digits late after Louisville seemed to have already moved on to the Huskies.
Kahla Roudebush led Cincinnati with 18 points, while Michelle Jones had 12 and Jill Stephens 11.
"We can't put a 40-minute game together," Walz said. "We're not mentally tough enough to play 40 minutes."
Maybe, but the Cardinals have played well enough over the season's first two months to head to UConn unbeaten in one of the nation's better conferences.
The road, however, gets significantly tougher against the Huskies. It's why Walz couldn't help but cringe just a little when someone relayed Bingham's assessment that UConn could be had.
"Don't print that," he said in mock horror.
Though Walz stressed he's not going to let the season ride on what happens against the Huskies, he's a little curious to see just how far his program has come.
"We are going up there to win," he said. "That's how you play the game. We're going to play hard like the way we've been playing. It's going to take our best game."