LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The University of Louisville women’s basketball team lost as badly as the Cardinals have lost a home game in more than five years Thursday night to Florida State.
Cancel U of L’s 13-game winning streak, too.
Florida State 67, Louisville 59 — on a night when the Cardinals huffed and puffed to six points in the second quarter and a season-low 17 in the first half.
Louisville had not been beaten this decisively at the KFC Yum! Center since Dec. 7, 2014 when they lost to Kentucky by nine. The Cards slipped to 21-2 and 10-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
If you want to crank up the excuse machine, go for it. Just don’t expect U of L coach Jeff Walz to contribute.
“I knew we weren’t going to go undefeated (in the ACC),” Walz said. “I’ve said that in all of our press conferences.
“Now, are we disappointed? Of course we are. We’re competitors. If we’re not disappointed, I’m thoroughly disappointed in them.”
The problem wasn’t the absence of guard Elizabeth Balogun, who played with the Nigerian national team in an Olympic qualifier in Serbia instead of battling the Seminoles.
The issue wasn’t the absence of freshman Norika Konno, who missed her fifth consecutive game with a sore knee after suffering a setback over the weekend.
Do not suggest that this team was low on adrenaline after Louisville played the U. S. Women’s National Team last Sunday.
It wasn’t fat-headless created by the announcement earlier this week that the Cards were slotted as a No. 1 seed in the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Regional when the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee did its mid-season reveal of the top 16 teams.
Don’t blame the looming weather apocalypse. Or me for checking in on Walz’s solid team for the first time this season.
Credit Florida State.
The Seminoles were the more aggressive team. They worked the glass with more sizzle than the Cardinals. They were nearly flawless from the free-throw line, making 13 of 14. They were formidable from the three-point line. They looked longer and more athletic, too.
When the Cardinals finally rallied from an 11-point deficit to tie the game at 42 on the first basket (by Kylee Shook) of the fourth quarter, this is how Florida State answered:
Layup.
Three-pointer.
Three-pointer.
Three-pointer.
10-footer in the paint.
Yep, 13 straight points.
The Seminoles, ranked No. 17, responded like the fifth-ranked team in the nation.
The Cardinals, ranked fifth, responded like No. 17.
Walz said that if the Cardinals had delivered one more stop and been able to take the lead, maybe the final 9 1/2 minutes would have been different.
“But we didn’t box out,” Walz said.
The coach is correct. The first basket in that 13-point FSU surge came after an offensive rebound.
“I thought if we could figure out a way to get the lead, then we could apply some pressure, but we could never get that lead,” Walz said.
The crowd, announced at 8,314, was ready. Probably too ready. One fan was escorted from the arena in the second quarter on the recommendation of an official.
The word was the criticism of the officials got too harsh after they failed to call a flagrant foul following a play that resulted in Louisville’s Jazmine Jones requiring a cotton swab in her left nostril.
Consider it the most striking example that Florida State was certainly the more aggressive team.
The Seminoles worked the Cardinals for 16 offensive rebounds. They chased Dana Evans into missing seven of nine three-point shots as well as 6 of 11 two-point attempts.
Nothing fell for Jones either. She missed 10 of her dozen attempts. Not one of the U of L starters made half of her attempts.
Walz did not pound a table. He was more perturbed with Louisville’s defense, especially in the first half. He said that even though U of L limited the Seminoles to 26 points, FSU should have only had 18.
It happens.
What happens next is that Louisville visits Syracuse Sunday. Balogun will not be there.
She will not return from Europe until Monday. She is expected to play when the Cardinals visit North Carolina State, in a game that could determine the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title, next Thursday.
Walz said that he was uncertain about the availability of Konno for either game.
“You move on,” Walz said. “It’s what you do. We’ve just got to keep getting more.”
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