Preview: Oregon State WBB Versus Louisville in Elite Eight

The sixth-seeded Oregon State Women’s Basketball team takes on one-seed Louisville in the Elite Eight on Sunday morning. Tune into the 9 am PST tip off on ESPN or (potentially) listen on the Oregon State Beaver Sports Network via TuneIn. Then there’s the official Twitter account of the team to keep you informed. Let’s take a closer look at the Cardinals!

Louisville (#3 in AP Poll, 35-2 overall, 15-1 in ACC)

The Cardinals boast the best resume of any team the Beavers have faced this season. They have two losses, so they are beatable, but those were to the first and 11th ranked teams in the country (Connecticut and Florida State). Check out their list of notable teams beaten: Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, Duke, Notre Dame (twice), North Carolina State, and Stanford. Four of those teams were opponents against Oregon State this season and hold a 4-1 collective record against the Beavers. Perhaps the biggest eyebrow raiser is a 33 point win over the Irish back in January.

The Cardinals are led by reigning ACC Player of the Year and All-American junior guard Asia Durr. She averages 18.7 points per game and has made 108 three pointers with an accuracy of 41.7%. It would be a shame to bring her up and not mention her 47 point performance against Ohio State in the team’s second game of the year. Senior forward Myshia Hines-Allen leads the team in rebounds at 9.9 per game while also scoring 14 points per game. Junior forward Sam Fuehring averages 10 points and 5.4 rebounds while hitting an impressive 59.2% of her shots.

Louisville has held opponents to an impressive 57 points per game on 37.4% shooting. According to HerHoopsStats.com, the Cardinals rank #4 in Margin of Victory Per Possession winning by 28 points per 100 possessions. Stats that should bring Oregon State some caution is that opponents average 17.1 turnovers per game, leading to 20.1 points off turnovers.

Prediction

Things just keep getting harder in the NCAA Tournament for the Beavers. Last weekend they did the unthinkable by beating Tennessee in Knoxville, hand the Volunteers their first home loss in the Tournament for the first time in 58 games. Then on Friday they out-rebounded a Baylor team that hadn’t let an opponent gain more rebounds all season. Louisville is another tough team and is a one-seed for a reason. To pull this off, Oregon State will need to be firing on all cylinders. Marie Gulich is on fire right now, and after draining 9-of-20 shots from downtown against Baylor, it appears the three-ball is is working to compliment her. I’ll take the Beavers in a nail-biter.