BYU's Lexi Eaton defends a Louisville guard in the Cougars' 86–53 loss to the Cardinals in the NCAA Tournament. (Twitter)
Turnovers were the downfall for the BYU women's basketball team in their 86–53 loss to No. 3 seed Louisville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
Seven different Cougars contributed to the scoring in the game, but 30 turnovers would prove too much for the Cougars to stay with Louisville. Morgan Bailey ended her Cougar career with another double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Lexi Eaton contributed 14 points, and Makenzi Morrison had nine.
'We have to learn from this and get better next year,' said BYU head coach Jeff Judkins. 'I haven't seen (Louisville) play like that all year.'
The Cougars fell behind the Cardinals quickly and were down by 12 with nine minutes left in the first half. Louisville used a full court press and double teamed BYU's guard Kylie Maeda whenever she got the ball to keep BYU at bay.
BYU shot 46 percent from the field in the first half but could not hit anything from the three-point line and took 13 fewer shots than Louisville after turning the ball over 18 times. Louisville took advantage of the Cougar mistakes and scored 20 points off of turnovers.
Bailey led the Cougars in the first half with 10 points and eight rebounds. Bailey made the last jump shot for the Cougars with 44 seconds left in the half to keep the score 24-38.
Morrison was hit in the jaw by a Louisville player who was charged with a flagrant 1. She hit both free-throws, and the Cougars kept possession of the ball to start the second half.
'It was a rough, physical game,” Morrison said. “They came out and pressured us. We were prepared, and mentally we knew they were going to be that way, but physically, it was a new thing for us. We adjusted a little bit as we went on, but it was too late in the game. We gave them too much momentum.'
Louisville then went on an 11-5 run after BYU missed four–straight shots. Eaton started to take the game into her hands after Bailey was forced to go to the bench with four fouls after five minutes into the second half. Eaton drove to the basket and was fouled to cut the lead to 19 points.
Morrison hit a much-needed 3-pointer to get the Cougars fired up and cut the lead to 16 with 13:55 left in the game. BYU went basket for basket with Louisville over the next five minutes of play but couldn't figure out how to bring the lead below 13 points.
BYU turned the ball over six times over a 5:34 period, which allowed Louisville to go on a 15-4 run and increase its lead to 28. Eaton was hit with a technical foul after slamming the ball down after a turnover with 4:30 left in the game.
The Cougars weren't able to recover from the deficit, and Louisville kept hitting hard on both ends of the court. BYU took 13 less shots than Louisville and only made one 3-point shot in the whole game. Louisville took 34 total free-throws during the game, while the Cougars only attempted 14.