Lindenwood came into the Yum and played hard for 4 quarters but the biggest suspense of the night was whether their coach, Phil Sayers, was going to put freshman Brynn Owens into the game. She had a large contingent of determined and loud fans from up the road in Indiana who got even the Louisville fans to chant for her to be played. Finally in the last few minutes of the game he gave the people what they wanted and there was much rejoicing.
Tajianna Roberts led both teams in scoring with 15. Amiya
Joyner had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Mackenly Randolph should be cleared for the game on Thursday but Elif Istanbulluoglu returned to play after an ankle injury and had 5 rebounds and 2 points. Virginia Tech transfer Carys Baker came out of her shooting slump to finally get her 1000th point. She finished the game with 12 points and 5 rebounds.
After the game Carys said, “For me obviously the last couple of games were hard just going scoreless but I think with my teammates they have so much confidence in me for me to be able to knock those down. Staying in the gym and staying positive I always want to be a team player so I didn’t let it affect me. Everyone was telling me to go out there and have fun, and I think that’s what I did.”
Coach Walz said, “I thought our effort, especially on the defensive end, in the first half was extremely good. We played hard. We played focused. The second half we got a little carried away trying to steal it every time instead of having good fundamentals and trying to keep someone in front of us. We’ve got to get a lot better real quick at guarding the ball. We’re allowing way too many straight line drives and it’s going to be a problem.”
He added, “I’m hoping we can improve without having to get our butts kicked and all of a sudden it’s an eye opener like oh sh*t he actually knows what he’s talking about.”
Next up the Cards hit the road to play Ball State on Thursday. The game is at 8PM and can be seen on CBS Sports Network.
