Women's Basketball Defeats Xavier 67-45

McCoughtry registers her first triple-double

Dec. 9, 2007

Louisville, Ky. - A whole troop of Musketeers couldn't have stopped Angel McCoughtry the way she filled up the box score for the Louisville women's basketball team Sunday afternoon in Freedom Hall. Using McCoughtry's first triple-double to extend to leads as much as 28 points, the Louisville Cardinals (5-2) rolled to a 67-45 victory over the visiting Xavier Musketeers (5-4).

"She played extremely hard," said Louisville head coach Jeff Walz. "There was a stretch where she was throwing up some bad shots, but she settled down and ended up with a lot of points and steals. When she does that we can be a great basketball team."

In a contest where both teams shot poorly from field, 37.5 percent for the Cardinals and 38.3 percent for the Musketeers, McCoughtry was a bright spot for Louisville. Her 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 steals made her the second player in the history of the program to be credited with a triple-double. Candyce Bingham supplied the other punch for the Cardinals with 19 points, nine rebounds, and three steals of her own.

"That's something hard to achieve," admitted McCoughtry. "Wow, that's hard to believe. I felt like I was zero for thirty in the beginning, so I had to start it with defense."

The game didn't start as well as it ended for the Cardinals, missed layups and bad passes allowed the Musketeers to stay in the game for most of the first half. At halftime Louisville had committed just six turnovers, and shot just 31.6 percent from the field.

Louisville began to pull away from Xavier once they went into their press late in the first half. That pressure defense was relentless the rest of the game to supply the Cardinals with 16 steals and force Xavier into 29 turnovers for the game. Louisville took advantage of those mistakes to put together an astonishing 28-2 advantage in points off turnovers.



"They really don't like pressure," said McCoughtry. "We tried to trap them, get in the passing lanes, and get steals most of the game."

"We wanted to press them the whole game," added Walz. "When they did get the ball past half court they only had 10 or 12 seconds to shoot."

Xavier was led by Jerri Taylor with 19 points and Ta'Shia Phillips with 13. Chauntise Wright gave Louisville a solid weapon in the paint, banging her way to nine points as she faced an attack from Xavier's frontline of Phillips and Amber Harris.

Xavier's only high mark over the Cardinals was on the glass with a 41-39 rebound advantage. Louisville led everywhere else with advantages of 16-7 in steals, 12-7 in assists, and 19 fewer turnovers (10-29).

The Cardinals will be back in action against Vermont on Wednesday night. The game starts a four game road stint for the Cardinals before the Christmas break.

Angel McCoughtry