Cards Come Up Just Short Against S. Carolina 79-77

Louisville came into the game against powerhouse South Carolina a 15 point underdog. Apparently the Cards didn’t get that memo though because they went toe to toe with the #3 team in the nation and even held a 5 point lead with under 5 minutes left in the game. Louisville had the ball down 2 with 7 seconds on the clock and coming out of a timeout you could only pray that Tajianna Roberts got a clean look. In the end Coach Walz designed the perfect play for the perfect person and it was executed perfectly…. except the shot didn’t fall.

Tajianna Roberts led Louisville in scoring with 20. Elif Istanbulluoglu had an outstanding game and scored 12 of her 15 points in the first half. She also had 9 rebounds. Reyna Scott came off the bench to play meaningful minutes and had 15 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists. Anaya Hardy started the game and had 6 points and 5 rebounds and held her own against the Gamecock’s bigs.

After the game Coach Walz said, “We played well but not well enough to win. I thought we executed well throughout the entire game. We had some great looks throughout the game but we go 6 of 10 from the free throw line… and then we probably missed 4 or 5 layups and that’s an area of the game we talk about all the time. You’ve got to be able to finish around the rim.”

On the positive side, “I thought we rebounded the ball well [34-34]. We did a really nice job of getting second chance opportunities. Defensively they shot close to 50% [49%] and so did we [48%] ” He added, “I thought we did play 4 good quarters which is the first time we’ve done that…. Tonight we lost but our effort was great. There’s no question about it. If we can give this effort every night I like my chances.”

On Elif he said, “E played well. She’s been getting in the gym. She’s been shooting more. She’s been working individually. She needs to be a 33-36% three point shooter which is exactly what she did tonight. She made some really nice drives and finished around the rim. She came up with 9 boards. So she played well.”

He said that he told Tajianna that her missed shot “is part of the game.” He said, “You’re going to miss some and you’re going to feel like that. If it goes in she feels great. So that’s where as a player if you want that shot you’ve got to be able to handle the fact that it might not go in every single time. If you want to be the hero you’ve got to be willing to be the goat.”

Louisville returns to the Yum this Sunday at noon to take on New Hampshire. The game can be seen on ACC Network Extra.