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Chauntise Wright goes up for two points while guarded by Miami of Ohio's Chanell Ridley. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
March 23, 2008
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) - Angel McCoughtry finally came up big in the NCAA tournament.
McCoughtry scored 20 points, as Louisville beat Miami of Ohio 81-67 on Sunday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
McCoughtry, the Big East's leading scorer at almost 24 points per game, came in averaging just 13 points in three NCAA tournament contests. She had 16 at halftime in this one.
Chauntise Wright led Louisville (25-9) with 21 and seven rebounds, and Patrika Barlow had 11 assists and seven rebounds. Louisville advances to play Kansas State Tuesday in the second round of the New Orleans regional. The Wildcats beat Chattagnooga 69-59 earlier Sunday.
The fourth-seeded Cardinals (25-9) are 12-2 since Jan. 30, and their only losses have come to West Virginia and top-ranked Connecticut in the Big East championship game.
Amanda Jackson led Miami with 22 points, 16 in the second half. The 13th-seeded RedHawks, champions of the MAC conference, finish the season at 23-11.
Louisville led by as many as 15 in the first half, but Miami cut it to 49-41 just over five minutes into the second half.
A 3-pointer from Jackson made it 58-49 with just over 9 minutes left.
But Brandie Radde answered with two 3-pointers and Candyce Bingham added a three-point play to stretch the lead back to 67-49, and the Cardinals were never again threatened.
McCoughtry left the game with 4:39 after coming down on a teammates foot and rolling her left ankle. She stayed on the Cardinals bench for the rest of the game.
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Laura Markwood suffered a similar injury for Miami less than two minutes later. She had to be helped off the court, and finished with 13 points and eight rebounds.
Miami opened the scoring with a 3-pointer from Shone, before Louisville went into its pressure defense. McCoughtry hit a 3, and the Cardinals got two quick steals and buckets, forcing Miami into a timeout just 2 minutes into the game.
McCoughtry had 12 of the Cardinals first 18 points, and helped Louisville to an early 24-11 lead.
The RedHawks responded with an 8-0 run as Shone broke the press, leading to several easy buckets in transition.
But Miami had no real answer for 6-foot-3 Chauntise Wright, who used her size to get position inside on the smaller Hawks. She had 10 first-half points and McCoughtry had 16 as the Cardinals went into halftime up 41-28.
Jackson, Miami's all-time scoring leader, was held without a field goal for the first 16 minutes.
The RedHawks had won six straight and 12-of-13 coming into the game.
