Louisville Tops Marquette, 79-69

Jan. 23, 2008

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Angel McCoughtry scored a game-high 28 points and three other Cardinals scored in double figures to lead Louisville over the Marquette women's basketball team, 79-69, Wednesday night at Freedom Hall. Junior Krystal Ellis led Marquette with 23 points, while freshman Paige Fiedorowicz add 13 points and six rebounds.

With the loss, the Golden Eagles fall to 10-8 overall, 2-3 in BIG EAST play.

Marquette battled in foul trouble for the entire game. Both Ellis and freshman Angel Robinson was forced to the bench with their second fouls midway through the first half.

Marquette went into halftime trailing 37-30, following an 8-3 Cardinal run to close out the first stanza. The Cardinals held Marquette with out a field goal for the final 4:01 of the first half.

Louisville pushed its lead to 12 points, 47-53, early in the second, but Marquette answered with a 17-2 run of its own to take the lead, 55-53 with 12:14 remaining in the game. During that run, Fiedorowicz scored nine points.

The two teams traded buckets until Louisville took back the lead, 70-63, following back-to-back buckets by McCoughtry. Ellis quickly cut the its lead to four, 70-66, with 4:20 left to play thanks to her fourth long-range bucket of the game.

Another McCoughtry bucket pushed UofL's lead to six points, 72-66. The reigning BIG EAST Player of the Year drilled a trey from the corner as the shot clock expired and Robinson was called for her fifth foul of the game to set up a rare four-point play. McCoughtry made the free throw to give the Cardinals a 76-66 advantage with 2:13 to play.

Ellis hit MU's last field goal with 1:32 remaining, and Thrower added a basket from the charity stripe putting the score at 76-69 with 53 seconds to go.

McCoughtry and Barlow combined to make three free throws in the final 30 seconds to seal the win for Louisville, 79-69.

For the game, Marquette shot 44.3 percent (27-of-61) from the floor compared to 41.0 percent (25-of-61) by the Cardinals. Louisville made seven long-range buckets, including four in the second half, and forced 20 MU turnovers turning those into 36 points.

Marquette connected on 40.7 percent (11-of-27) of their attempts from the floor in the first half, while Louisville shot 33.3 percent. Twelve of Louisville's 37 first half points came at the charity stripe.

The Golden Eagles will be back in action on Saturday, Jan. 26, at USF. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast locally in Tampa on Catch 47.