Runner-up national champs Louisville beat CU women

Fifty fouls called in the game
Release: December 21, 2013
By: Troy Andre, Assistant SID

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Lexy Kresl had 17 points and Jen Reese corralled her second career double-double, but Louisville had a little bit more Saturday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center as the No. 7 ranked Cardinals outlasted No. 11 Colorado 69-62.

Louisville All-American candidate Shoni Schimmel had a game-high 30 points, including 13-of-16 from the line as Cardinals improved to 12-1.

Shoni Schimmel, with 30 points, was simply too much for the B uffs to handle

Reese had 14 points despite an off-day from the floor (4-of-14), and pulled down a team-season-high 14 rebounds for the Buffaloes (9-1) who saw their 33-game nonconference regular season win streak end.

It was a tough, physical battle, the kind one would expect from a game between two of the nation’s top teams. But that aggressiveness cost both teams at times; and Colorado a little more in the end. A total of 56 fouls were called, 32 on Colorado. The teams combined for 70 free throw attempts, Louisville hitting 24-of-40 while the Buffaloes were 17-of-30.

Colorado held a potent Louisville offense well below its average. The Cardinals entered the game averaging over 90 points per game, and over 100 in their last four. The Buffaloes were able to slow Louisville down and force the 2013 NCAA runner-ups to score in the half court.

“They get a lot of their points in transition,” Kresl said. “One of our goals was to slow them down and make them execute their plays and that worked to our advantage.”

But Colorado gave the Cardinals more opportunities than they hoped. The Buffaloes were outrebounded for the first time this year, 52-47. Louisville crashed the offensive glass, pulling down 21 on that side of the court. Even though second-chance points were even (11-11), it was the missed opportunities for stops that hurt the Buffs.

“Defensive rebounding is something that we pride ourselves on, but it let us down,” CU head coach Linda Lappe said. “I knew offensive rebounding was something they were good at. At the end of the game it came down to if we could make stops, but overall proud of our effort; how hard we played.”

“Just not boxing out, they got a few too many opportunities on the offensive boards,” Kresl added.

Despite the rebounding struggles, Colorado was in the game the whole way as neither team led by more than seven points and featured nine lead changes.

Kresl gave Colorado an early 8-5 lead with a 3-pointer, but

LEXY KRESYL scored 17-points in the game.

Bria Smith hit back-to-back jumpers to even the game at 10-10.

The Cardinals pushed their lead to 24-18 on a Sara Hammond layup with 8:01 left in the first half, but Colorado answered with its biggest run.

Kresl, who scored 15 of her 17 points in the first half, answered Hammond with a jumper that set off a 13-0 run. Arielle Roberson put back a Reese miss and a pair of Kresl free throws tied the game at 24-24.

Lauren Huggins broke the tie with a long 3-pointer to give the Buffaloes a 27-24 lead, forcing a Louisville timeout. At the beginning of the timeout Louisville’s bench received a technical foul giving the Buffaloes an opportunity to extend the lead.

Kresl hit the two technical free throws coming out of the timeout to give the Buffaloes their largest lead at 29-24. Unfortunately that was it for Colorado in the first half and the Cardinals came storming back.

Schimmel finally ended Colorado’s run with a runner in the lane, drew a foul and completed the 3-point play. Younger sister Jude Schimmel then connected on a pair of fast break layups in the closing minutes as a 9-0 run gave the Cardinals a 33-29 lead at the half.

Colorado quickly erased the Louisville halftime lead as a Sborov 3-pointer ended a 7-2 CU run out of the break for a 36-35 Buffs lead.

However, shortly after that the fouls started to catch up with Colorado. Sborov picked up her third moments after her 3-pointer. Brittany Wilson then picked up No. 4 with nearly 13 minutes left with Ashley Wilson and Roberson matching that total moments later.

Still the Buffaloes continued to stay close. Sborov hit a bucket to tie the game at 46-46 with 9:44 remaining, but the Cardinals reeled off seven straight behind the Schimmel sisters.

Louisville then kept Colorado just out of reach, mainly from the foul line. The Cardinals, who entered the game hitting 51 percent from the floor on the season, made just 34 percent for the game, and only 29 percent (9-of-31) in the final 20 minutes.

The trouble was Colorado wasn’t much better. A 46-percent shooting team for the season, CU connected on just 37 percent, although the Buffaloes were closer to their average in the second half (45 percent).

“(Louisville) helped us get ready for (Pac-12) conference,” Kresl said. “We grew as a team throughout the game.”

In the end, the game was put away at the line. Louisville hit 18-of-24 from the line in the second half compared to just 10-of-18 for Colorado.

The Buffs did get a few stops, a pair of free throws by Kresl and one each from Roberson and Reese cut the Louisville lead to 63-59 with 1:10 left. The defense came up big when Jude Schimmel missed a jumper with under a minute left, and Roberson grabbed the rebound. Rachel Hargis eventually ended up at the line, hitting 1-of-2 to make it a one possession game at 63-60.

But that was it as Shoni Schimmel clamped down hitting four free throws down the stretch, and scored the final points on a breakaway basket in the closing seconds.

“I like how our team fought throughout the game,” Lappe said. “You want to be in a position to have a chance to win at the end of the game; we had that, but just didn’t make enough plays down the stretch. We learned a lot about this game. You want nonconference to prepare you for conference, and we felt this did that today.”

Colorado will return to action on Sunday, Dec. 29, by hosting Southern Utah at 2 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.

Colorado Buffaloes Women’s Basketball

[include file=/media/bouldersponsors.txt]