The University of Louisville women’s basketball team was knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten after eight games Sunday, caving to Kentucky 69-65 at Lexington.

Too much emotion wrapped up in this one, taking precedence over fundamentals. The Lady Cards leaving everything they learned during the Final Four march last season in the locker room.

Protecting the basketball continues to be a major challenge for a team that was ranked fourth nationally, three spots behind top-ranked UConn. The only good thing about the game was that UofL wasn’t playing the UConn women.

The Lady Cards once again demonstrating they can, as Jeff Walz says, “turn the ball over with the best of them.” A 24-turnover day, with Bria Smith and Jude Schimmel committing six apiece, Shoni Schimmel with five, and Asia Taylor with four.

One could credit the revved up UK defense, playing on its home court with all the advantages that conveys, but the lack of caution in handling the basketball has been a recurring problem for the Cardinals, this season and in the recent past.

As a result, the UofL women blew a third straight game to UK in the rivalry, allowing the Wildcats to claim superiority. Winning national runner-up honors don’t mean much if you’re consistently second best in the state.

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By Charlie Springer

Charlie Springer is a former Louisville editor and sportswriter, a public affairs consultant, a UofL grad and longtime fan.

4 thoughts on “Louisville women turn another over to Kentucky”
  1. Have to respectfully disagree. While I’m obviously no fan of ku’s current winning streak (including now two games in a row we basically gift-wrapped to them), until ku makes it to multiple Final Fours, ours is still the better program.

    I know that sounds very snobbish, but it’s true IMO.

    1. I don’t disagree at all Jason. But we can’t keep giving them the satisfaction of beating UofL. It goes to their collective head.

      Not taking care of the ball cost us today and it killed us early against UConn in the national championship game.

      1. Without sounding too whiney, the referees were horrible Sunday. The entire game. The UK crowd was irate after the first half. It got to the officiating cew and they responded by calling 14 fouls on Louisville in the final 20 minutes and just 5 against UK. Sara Hammond’s final foul was a figment of the crew’s imagination.

        Louisville gave this one away in the first ten minutes of the final half. The 24-9 UK run was plagued by turnovers, missed gimmies and failure to extend the defense.

        It is only one loss. A big one, granted…but hardly the end of the season. 22 more regular season games await. Plenty of time for Walz to continue to teach and stratagize.

        What hurts is having it and letting it slip away.

        Paulie

        1. I didn’t want to get into the officiating but there were a lot of unusual calls going against the visiting team. Not surprising given the state of women’s officiating.

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