Freshman Katie Donovan had her first career double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds but it wasnt enough as Louisville downed Illinois State 72-58 Tuesday in womens college basketball at Redbird Arena.
We really didnt take care of the ball, Donovan said after the game. Our defense was awesome but we werent sharp and turned the ball over on easy things.
The Redbirds, 0-3, out-rebounded the Cards 55-48 behind Donovans 14, the second-highest total by an Illinois State freshman at Redbird Arena. Huston backed Donovans play with 12 points, her career high.
The Cardinals, 3-1, fell far short of their 87 points-per game average but still got 18 points from Tiana Ford and 16 from Marju Sober.
Donovan, who had 10 points and 10 rebounds at halftime, scored ISUs first seven points and a pair of free throws by Sharon Blade gave ISU a 10-9 lead with 13:44 left in the first half. Louisville led by as many as seven at 29-22, but a pair of Beth Huston free throws and a Kristi Larson rebound basket cut the lead to 29-25 before Kara Kassans hit a jumper at the buzzer to put Louisville up 31-25 at intermission.
Early in the second half, the Birds scrambled back within a point at 37-36 on a Donovan rebound basket with 14:20 left in the game, but Kim Graham sank a pair of free throws to start a 20-4 Louisville run to build the lead to 57-40 at the nine-minute mark. Louisvilles largest lead was 67-46 with 3:50 left.
The lead was cut to 12 with one minute remaining after Stacey White hit a three point basket but two missed shots in the remaining seconds of the game gave Louisville the comfortable advantage at the buzzer.
Illinois State head coach Jenny Yopp said after the game that this match against Louisville was something completely different than Sundays effort.
We had such drastic improvements in this game than from what we produced on Sunday and Katie, as well as the team, played extremely aggressive tonight, Yopp said. Obviously Louisville is one of the best teams we are going to play and we have some big teams ahead of us, but our effort today was so much better than before.
We still didnt come out with a win, Yopp continued. This group is coming a long way and they are not ok with losing at all, even when it is obvious we are improving. We need to get a few more shots to fall and that will happen as long as we stay healthy, improving and regroup after games to prepare for the next one.
