Jeff Walz was seething, needing an outlet for his frustration, his University of Louisville women’s basketball falling behind Wake Forest 42-31 at the half.
”I had to say a few things – a little motivational speech – but it was unacceptable to come out and play the way we did in the first half,” said Walz after his team’s 79-68 win.
Loud enough to be noted in the Wake Forest locker room down the hall. ”We could hear their coach at halftime – I’ll just leave it at that,” said Wake Forest Coach Jen Hoover.
Whatever he said will stay in Winston-Salem and it took about three minutes for it to take full effect, with the Cards trailing 47-39 at the 17:13 mark in the second half.
Seconds later, Mariya Moore would intercept a pass, drive the distance for her layup, igniting a UofL spurt of seven straight points and outscoring the Demon Deacons 24-12 before finally tying the score at 59-59 on a layup by Shawnta Dyer with four minutes, 30 seconds on the clock. Myisha Hines-Allen would get the go-ahead basket at 7:57 and UofL would never relinquish the lead.
Hines-Allen was tops in the scoring and rebounding columns, with 20 points and 10 rebounds, following closely by Moore with 16 points and seven rebounds.
The Cardinals are 15-1 overall and 3-0 in the conference, thanks to Jeff Walz’ halftime monologue.
Walz is a good coach. We are not that talented overall but find a way to play together and win. Offensively we are predictable and have a less than stellar half court game. If Dyer can start making her left handed drives to the hoop she would be a 65% shooter. We don’t have a polished finisher or go to player. To be 15-1 is amazing with the talent we have. I do believe we are overrated in the AP rankings and think we should be 11th not 4th in the AP. Tenn is better, NC is better, Fl State is better, Maryland is better, Oregon St is better, Texas is better, ND is better and yes Kentucky is better. Our highest ranked win is Iowa. All of these other teams have beaten higher ranked squads and played tougher schedules. We have played a much softer schedule.