The No. 2 UConn women’s basketball team will travel to Brooklyn on Saturday night to face off against the No. 22 Louisville Cardinals.
The 9:00 p.m. tip-off is the Huskies’ latest of the season, as both teams will have to watch No. 17 Iowa (8-0) and Tennessee (6-0) square off at 7 p.m. Both games will be streamed on FOX.
The Huskies, fresh off their return from The Bahamas, defeated Holy Cross, 88-52, on Tuesday night at Gampel Pavilion. The Cardinals, 5-3 on the season, lost to No. 11 Oklahoma, 78-72, on Wednesday evening as a part of the SEC/ACC Challenge.
The Cardinals opened their season against now-top ranked UCLA in France, sticking with the Bruins for three quarters before a late 7-0 run gave Lauren Betts and company the victory, 66-59.
Wins against Southern Indiana, Tennessee-Martin, Morehead State, South Florida and Colorado were sandwiched between a rivalry game loss to then-No. 20 Kentucky, 71-61 to complete the November slate. The Cardinals again found themselves in a close game with the Wildcats before Kentucky ended the game on a 10-3 run to seal the ten-point victory.
Connecticut’s seven opponents thus far have a combined record of 33-22 (.600), whereas Louisville’s eight opponents have racked up a collective record of 46-21 (.687). The only common opponent on both teams’ schedules is South Florida – who both teams defeated.
The Cardinals are led by a tandem of guards both averaging 12 ppg in Jayda Curry (12-2-3.5) and Tajianna Roberts (12-2.4-1.6). The two combined for 24 points and five assists in the Cardinals’ loss to Oklahoma.
Curry and Roberts are the only Cardinals to average double-digits this season, but head coach Jeff Walz’s 11-player rotation presents a multi-faced offensive attack that is a headache for opposing defenses to manage. Freshman Imari Berry is a name to watch off the bench, frequently in the double-double neighborhood in points and rebounds.
Louisville’s most volatile scoring option, forward Olivia Cochran, exploded for 17 points and nine rebounds in the loss to Oklahoma, nearly doubling her season averages of 9.6 ppg and 6.3 rpg, respectively. The fifth-year veteran has scored 13 points or more in four contests, demanding opposing defense’s respect, but consistency has yet to find Cochran, who has scored two times or less in three games.
Both teams have found success, albeit fleeting, from behind the arc, as evident from Connecticut’s back-to-back showings of 3/14 (21.4%) and 14/31 (45.2%) against Mississippi and Holy Cross, as well as Louisville’s 16/27 (59.3%) performance against Morehead State and 6/29 (20.7%) outing against UCLA.
Both offenses are at their best when operating through sets, with Connecticut ranking No. 2 in effective field goal percentage nationally (58.4%) and Louisville 77th (49.6%). Creating space through movement, which allowed Kaitlyn Chen and Sarah Strong to combine for 36 points last Tuesday against the Crusaders, is what the Husky offense is built to do.
The Cardinals are a tough defensive outfit when defending the three, allowing only 33.8% of opposing threes to go in (top 100 in the country), but allow an average of 10.5 offensive rebounds per night and 34.1 boards per night overall. Establishing an identity under the basket will be crucial for both teams early, especially if Louisville wants to guide its scoring through the explosive Cochran.