While the Louisville men have been free-falling of late, the Lady Cards suffered their first loss of 2012 (and the first since early December) on the road against St. John's last Sunday, 64-72.
The game was turnover prone, and the Red Storm edged out Louisville in that department 15-12; but the difference came on the glass, where St. John's had a 35-25 advantage, including three more on the offensive end, which meant more second chance opportunities for the Red Storm, and second chance opportunities taken away from the Cardinals.
Becky Burke of Louisville led all scorers with 19 points, while Bria Smith was the only other Cardinal in double figures with 17. Eugeneia McPherson led the Red Storm with 16 points, but two others craked double digits for St. John's (McKenith 15, Smith 11).
It didn't take long for the Lady Cardinals to get back into the win column - they returned home on Wednesday (1/11) to pick up a conference win over South Florida 63-57. Down 29-33 at the half, it took a second half surge to assure the Cardinal win.
Shoni Schimmel led the Cards with 16; two others scored in double figures, Sheronne Vails added 14 from the starting lineup, and Cierra Warren added 10 from the bench.
For the Bulls, the points came in bunches primarily from just three players: starting senior guard Jasmine Wynne had a game high 20, closely followed by junior guard Kaneisha Saunders' 18 off the bench, and starting junior guard Inga Orekhova would add 11 points to the effort. Their combined 49 was all but 8 points of the Bulls' total 57 in the game.
Unfortunately, the Lady Cards would close the week with another loss, this time an overtime loss on the road against Rutgers, 68-71. The Lady Cards had a healthy 32-23 halftime lead, but it was all Scarlet Knights in the second half 37-28, reaching the end of regulation at a 60-60 tie. Rutgers would outscore Louisville 11-8 in the extra session to clinch the victory.
Five Cardinals scored in double-figures in the game, including four of the five starters: Cierra Warren scored 14, Becky Burke 11, with Bria Smith and Sheronne Vails both adding 10. The Cardinals were led by Shawnta' Dyer's 16 points off the bench. Three Scarlet Knights scored in double-figures, including Erica Wheeler's game high 23, April Sykes' 19, and Monique Oliver's 17.
This game was decided on two key shooting statistics: the Cardinals kept it close with excellent free throw shooting (they were 20 of 22 for just a shade under 91%; compare that to Rutgers' 10 of 16 for 62.5%), but Rutgers pulled away with three point shooting (the Scarlet Knights hit 9 triples in the game at 52.9%, compared to the Cards' 2 for 11, 18.2% behind the arc). Thus Louisville's plus 10 point advantage from the charity stripe disappears quickly behind Rutgers' 21 point advantage from long range. Honestly, when the other team shoots that well from distance in the game while you are struggling, you're fortunate that final margain was only three.
The loss drops the Lady Cards to 14-4 overall on the season, and 3-2 in Big East play. They go for win 15 on Wednesday, January 18th against Providence. The game will be at 7:00pm at home in the KFC Yum! Center.
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