No. 5 Louisville women beat Middle Tennessee 91-72
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) — Louisville coach Jeff Walz got a victory, and he hopes Middle Tennessee gave his fifth-ranked Cardinals a lesson in listening to the scouting report.
Mariya Moore scored 27 points, and Louisville Cardinals never trailed beating Middle Tennessee 91-72 Wednesday night despite giving up a career-high 27 points and 11 assists to Blue Raiders guard Ty Petty.
"I hope our kids believe now that she's really good," Walz said. "We tried to tell them that, but I think there were a few times we decided not to guard her just to see is she really good. After 27 points, I'm hoping they realized that, and then I'm hoping they'll believe us from now on when we tell them someone is good. She was phenomenal."
This was Louisville's first visit to Middle Tennessee since 2008, and the Cardinals had little trouble improving to 5-1 in this series despite letting Petty knock down 10 of her 17 shots.
Ciera Johnson opened with a layup for the Cardinals (3-0), and Alex Johnson hit a short jumper to tie it up at 2. That was as close as Middle Tennessee (0-2) from Conference USA would get as Louisville shot 67 percent taking a 22-9 lead after the first quarter.
Asia Durr also had 22 points, and Myisha Hines-Allen added 17 for Louisville.
Alex Johnson had 13 for the Blue Raiders.
"We hope we grow up," Middle Tennessee coach Rick Insell said of his young team with Petty the only senior.
Petty pulled the Blue Raiders within 26-21 capping a 12-2 run with a 3 with 4:39 left. That woke the Cardinals up, and they answered with 15 straight points and led 41-24 at halftime.
The Cardinals pushed their lead to as much as 24 a couple times in the fourth quarter, the first on a 3 by Hines-Allen.
BIG PICTURE
Louisville: The Cardinals continued their run through an easy opening portion of the schedule before playing fourth-ranked South Carolina on Nov. 27th. This was the Cardinals' third straight game against a team from Tennessee but not against the state's only ranked team, No. 13 Tennessee.
Middle Tennessee: This was the highest-ranked team to visit since No. 4 Tennessee in 2013, helping the Blue Raiders bring in some star power for their home opener. They dropped to 5-1 all-time against Louisville, but it's part of Insell's toughening up his Blue Raiders during nonconference play for March. Arizona State and Georgia Tech also visit in December.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
The Cardinals did little to hurt themselves with an easy victory. This is their second road game and second against an NCAA Tournament team last March. "It gives us more confidence to know we're doing so well against great teams, so just lets us know where we are so far," Moore said. "All teams get better throughout the season. It's good to know we're starting off pretty well."
HEIGHT ADVANTAGE
Walz played five Cardinals who are 6-foot-2 or taller against a team with only Rebecca Reuter taller than 6 foot. The Cardinals outrebounded Middle Tennessee 44-30 and had a huge edge at the free throw line (21 of 27) compared to the Blue Raiders (3 of 6). The Cardinals even affected shots they weren't around as the Blue Raiders missed some wide-open shots.
"We probably missed seven chip shots," Insell said. "Well that's 14 points that's uncontested shots that we usually knock down that because of their size we were looking for them and we didn't follow through. We hit those seven chip shots, you look at the game it's a little bit different."
UP NEXT
Louisville hosts Bowling Green on Saturday afternoon.
Middle Tennessee visits Tennessee Tech on Saturday.