For the second time in 12 days, the Miami basketball women’s team will play a top-five team. The Hurricanes travel to Louisville to play the second-ranked Cardinals in a Sunday matinee.
The Miami basketball women defeated number four Notre Dame on February 6 at the Watsco Center. It was the first time that the Hurricane women had defeated a defending national champion.
Louisville has been one of the best programs in the country under Head Coach Jeff Walz. The Cardinals have been to ten NCAA Tournaments in Walz’s 11 seasons. That includes two NCAA runners up and a third final four. Both championship game losses were to UConn.
Louisville Senior guard Asia Durr is 12th in the nation averaging 21.1 points per game. The Hurricanes did a great job defending Durr last season. She had season lows with seven points and one made field goal. Durr also did not make a three-point field goal.
The Miami basketball women did an exceptional job on last season’s Final Four hero for Notre Dame Arike Ogunbowale in their victory last week. Ogunbowale who is 14th nationally in scoring averaging 21.0 PPG finished with only 13 against Miami.
The Hurricanes held the 2018 Final Four MVP to 4-15 from the floor and 1-6 on threes in 39 minutes. As a team, the Fighting Irish made just 37.3 percent of their field goal attempts and were 3-14 on three-point attempts.
Miami is going to need a similar defensive performance at the KFC YUM Center to pull off their second straight top-five upset. Louisville enters the game 14th nationally in scoring offense at 79.5 PPG. Notre Dame is third averaging 87.2 PPG. That includes the 72-65 loss to the Hurricanes.
Game Information:
"GAME 27 | FEB. 17, 2019 • 3 P.M. ET • LOUISVILLE, KY.20 Miami Hurricanes (21-5, 9-2 ACC)Head Coach: Katie Meier (Duke, 1989 [B.A.], 1990 [M.A.])Record at UM: 273-168 (14th season), Career Record: 349-213 (18th season)2 Louisville Cardinals (23-1, 10-1 ACC)Head Coach: Jeff Walz (Northern Kentucky, 1995)Record at UL: 322-97 (12th season), Career Record: 322-97 (12th season)Game Information Courtesy of HurricaneSports.Com."
Miami enters the game 21-5 and on pace potentially for their best season under Head Coach Katie Meier. Meier’s best season as Hurricanes Head Coach was 28-5 in 2011. They have advanced to four straight NCAA Tournaments and seven of the last eight. Meier is still looking for an elusive trip to the Sweet 16.
The Hurricanes are led by the imposing inside tandem of All-America Candidate Beatrice Mompremier and Emese Hof. Mompremier is in her first year with Miami after sitting out last season after transferring from Baylor. The South Florida native is averaging 16.6 PPG and 11.8 RPG. Hof is averaging 13.9 PPG and 8.7 PPG.
ESPN has assigned two of their elite broadcasters to the Miami-Louisville game. Pam Ward is a longtime ESPN announcer who has called college football and the Women’s College World Series.
Carolyn Peck will be the analyst. She led Purdue to the 1999 NCAA Championship as their Head Coach and also coached Florida and in the WNBA with Orlando. Peck played college basketball at Vanderbilt.
"BROADCAST INFORMATIONESPN2 • Play-by-Play: Pam Ward • Color: Carolyn Peck |WVUM 90.5 FM • Danny LaRose | WVUM.org"
Following the wins over Notre Dame and Pittsburgh last week the Hurricanes moved up five spots to 20th in the national rankings. The victory over the Fighting Irish also earned the Lady Canes a top-16 national seed in the early NCAA Tournament seedings.
Miami will have four games remaining following the game at Louisville. Miami hosts number 21/19 Florida State on February 24 and travel to number 11/9 North Carolina State in the regular season finale March 3. Miami also plays at Virginia Tech and hosts Georgia Tech.
Getting a win in one of the final three games against the ranked teams is vital to keeping the top-16 national seed and staying home for the first two rounds of the tournament. That’s what they were projected as last week. Miami last hosted the first two rounds in 2017.