Pack wins shocker, stuns No. 7 Louisville
Nevada guard Dellena Criner dribbles around Louisville forward Angel McCoughtry in the Wolf Pack's 85-82 win Saturday.
In the biggest upset in Nevada women’s basketball history, the Wolf Pack beat No. 7 Louisville 85-82 Saturday to win the four-team Nugget Classic tournament championship game.
The Wolf Pack (4-3) has played six ranked teams in its history and has lost every time, except Saturday.
“Nobody can ever take this from us,” said Nevada coach Jane Albright of the championship and her 401st career win. “This group is really inspirational to me.”
Louisville, undefeated going into the game (5-1), was led by forward Angel McCoughtry, who is so good the Women’s National Basketball Association sent a scout to Reno to watch her play in this weekend’s tournament.
But McCoughtry, averaging 22.6 points per game this season, ran into foul trouble just six minutes into the game after she committed her second foul. She sat out the final ten minutes of the first half as Nevada pulled within three points, 36-33, before the break.
“Angel is tremendous,” Albright said of the Louisville senior who scored 34 points Saturday.
McCoughtry exploded for 24 points in the second half as Louisville moved to a 70-66 lead with five minutes left in the game. The Cardinals used the lead to press the Wolf Pack, but Nevada guard Dellena Criner negated the pressure defense with exceptional ball handling.
Criner successfully pushed the ball past the mid-line, galvanizing the Wolf Pack offense, as she scored 13 of her 25 points in the final seven minutes of the game.
After Louisville took a late four-point lead, Criner put the Wolf Pack back in the lead with three consecutive buckets.
The 10-2 Nevada run was capped with jumpers from Shavon Moore and Brandi Jones to put the Wolf Pack up 78-72 with less than two minutes to play, but Louisville battled back.
The Cardinals went on a 7-4 spurt to move within three points.
After Criner nailed two free throws, McCoughtry nailed a three pointer with three seconds left in the game. Louisville immediately fouled Jones, who made one of two free throws.
After the inbound and down 85-82, McCoughtry ran to the mid-court line and chucked a pray that landed about 15-feet, and three points, short.
“Now the radar is on us,” said Criner, who was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
The Wolf Pack was also led by freshman Kayla Williams who scored a career high 15 points in 17 minutes played.
Louisville out shot Nevada 50.8 percent to 47.5 percent, but the key factor was the Wolf Pack’s ability to get to the free-throw line. Nevada converted on 23 of 28 free throws, while Louisville converted on 14 of 16.
The Wolf Pack also out-rebounded Louisville 33 to 30, while nailing six three-point shots compared to the Cardinals’ four.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, November 29th, 2008 at 10:52 pm and is filed under Breaking News, Sports, Sports CP, Women's Basketball.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
