Louisville women’s basketball: Takeaways from back-to-back wins

Louisville women’s basketball welcomes Bellarmine and UT-Martin and notches impressive back-to-back victories.

After falling to now #11 Arizona in a neutral site game, the Louisville women’s basketball team came home to the Yum. The Cards welcomed crosstown foe Bellarmine Knights to the Yum Center on Tuesday, and the UT-Martin Skyhawks on Wednesday. The UT-Martin game was originally scheduled for a Thursday night game, had to be rescheduled to the Wednesday night game. This change occurred because the Washington Huskies game that was scheduled for Sunday was moved to a Saturday tip instead.

So, let’s take a look at my key takeaways from the two opening home games of the season, beginning with Bellarmine.

Emily Engstler is a straight up baller

After having not too great of a first game for the Cardinals against Arizona, Engstler came out against Bellarmine to right that wrong. Engslter came out hot, and stayed hot for all 19 minutes she played. After Engstler scored the Cards’ first two points of the game, she followed that up by finishing the first quarter with nine points total.

At halftime, Engstler had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Engstler would finish the game leading the Cards in scoring with 12 points and rebounding with 14 boards. She would score her 12 points on 5-8 shooting from the field, and 2-2 from three-point range.

The team played a tremendous game defensively

After a decent defensive effort against Arizona in the opener, Louisville came home and brought a different level of defense with them. The Cards tied the program record of points allowed in a game with only allowing Bellarmine to score 25 points. The Cards didn’t allow any of the Knights to reach double figures in scoring. Louisville held the Knights to a dismal 7-47 shooting from the field on the night, which comes out to 14.9%. Bellarmine only hit on 2 out of 12 three-point field goals in the game for 16.7%. Louisville ended up with 32 defensive rebounds and forced 29 Bellarmine turnovers. The Cards ended up getting 15 steals and 5 blocks in the game.

Three-point shooting and turnovers still concerns

Louisville women’s basketball has always been a very good three-point shooting team over the years. This year’s team has yet to really find a groove from behind the arc. The Cards were 2-11 in their opening contest against Arizona and were barely better Tuesday night.

Louisville came out and shot 43% in the first quarter, but it all went downhill after that. In the next three-quarters, Louisville went 2-8, 0-4, and 0-2. I asked Coach Walz about the three-point shooting in the post-game press conference, and he said, “At one point I had to tell the team to stop shooting threes.” Louisville ended the game 5-21 from three for 23.8%.

Turnovers really haunted the Cards in this game against Bellarmine. Louisville turned the ball over 20 times. Bellarmine only had 5 steals in the game, so 15 of the turnovers were unforced errors by Louisville. When asked in the post-game press conference about turnovers Coach Walz said, “20 turnovers in unacceptable. Turnovers helped get them beat against Arizona.”

Now, let’s turn our sights to the UT-Martin game on Wednesday night and take a look at my key takeaways from that game.

Engstler thrives in the Yum! Center

After a 12 point and 14 rebound double-double on Tuesday night, Engstler was not ready to slow down on Wednesday. Engstler scored 18 of her 20 points in the first half. She got 20 points on 7-9 shooting from the field and 4-4 from the three-point range. She may have only grabbed 2 rebounds in this game, but her offensive stats were off the charts.

Three-point shooting improved against Skyhawks

After poor long-range shooting in the first two games, the Cards were much more efficient Wednesday. The Cards shot 7-13 from behind the arc. Emily Englster shot 4-4, Kianna Smith was 2-3, and Ramani Parker was 1-2The 58% of the Cards shot in this game was decidedly better than the first 2 games.

The defense showed out again against UT-Martin

After giving up 61 to Arizona, the Cards came home and brought a lockdown defense with them. Louisville gave up 25 points on Tuesday, and 30 points on Wednesday. The Skyhawks only shot 27.5% from the field, and 12.5% from three-point range on Wednesday. The Cards were able to grab 26 defensive rebounds and limit the Skyhawks to only 4 offensive rebounds. Louisville was also able to get 8 steals and 7 blocks.

Next up for the Cards the fly out to Seattle to take on the Washington Huskies Saturday, November 20th at 5 pm.