#3 Louisville Shuts Down Boston College Offense, Defeats Eagles

Both teams got off to a slow start tonight, but the #3 Louisville Cardinals ended up dominating the Eagles, winning by a score of 79-49.

It took just over 2 minutes for either team to score once the game started tonight, with Louisville opening the scoring on a pair of free throws. The Eagle scored the first field goal of the game 20 second later, and the two teams stayed within a couple points of each other for the remainder of the first quarter.

Louisville began building up a lead in the second quarter, outscoring the Eagles by 10, and continued to dominate throughout the rest of the game. The Cardinals scored at least 20 points in every quarter but the first, and did not allow the Eagles to score more than 13 points in any quarter.

The Eagles shot just 35.4%, and went 2-for-15 from behind the arc (Marnelle Garraud and Jojo Lacey each scored a 3). Both teams struggled from behind the free throw line: the Eagles made just half of their free throws, and Louisville only made two thirds of theirs. BC has been pretty solid from behind the line in past years, but has been struggling a bit this season, leaving easy points on the floor.

As we’ve continued to see when BC loses, turnovers are a big factor when the Eagles struggle, particularly since this team tends to get messy when they get frustrated. Louisville played strong defense tonight, but 21 turnovers is way more than Coach McNamee and her team want to see themselves giving up.

Taylor Soule was the only BC player to hit double digits today, leading the team with 12 points. Maria Gakdeng was BC’s leader on defense with 9 rebounds (3 offensive, 6 defensive), 2 blocks, and 1 steal.

This was a tough loss for BC, but the Eagles now have two of the toughest ACC opponents out of the way in UNC and Louisville. Next up, BC faces Syracuse. The Orange are 8-5 overall and 1-2 in the ACC, while BC is 8-4 overall and 0-2 in the ACC.