One might think that after Duke came out and smacked the team in the mouth in the first half that they would hunker down and vow to never let that happen again. You would be wrong though because once again versus Virginia this afternoon Louisville came out flat and tentative and dug itself into a hole they couldn’t quite get out of.
Coach Walz said, “We got what we deserved. We did not play hard. The first half… it was bad. The number of 50/50 balls that we did not come up with it kills you. We think we’re playing hard but we’re tapping the ball instead of grabbing it.“ He added, ”Hopefully it’s a learning experience.“
Elif Istanbulluoglu was one of the bright spots in the game. She had to sit with two fouls in the first half but in the second half she single-handedly brought the Cards back either her play on both ends of the floor. She said of the first half, “At the beginning we were soft. All these games when you look back and we have trouble it’s because we are not aggressive enough with the ball…. we fought back and I know what we can do but we need to bring that at the beginning.” Elif finished with 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists…