Round of 32 NCAA Tournament Preview: No. 1 Louisville vs. No. 8 Marquette
By Ben Dull
The Louisville Cardinals, the No. 1 seed in the Lexington region, took care of business in round one against the Boise State Broncos. No. 8 seed Marquette awaits them after a 19 point win over Dayton.
The Broncos played the Cardinals to a 11-11 draw in the second quarter after falling behind by 10 points early on. A strong third quarter performance pushed the lead to 29 as both Myisha Hines-Allen and Kylee Shook finished with double-doubles.
The 33-2 Cardinals are led by junior guard Asia Durr, undoubtedly one of the best players in the country. Pay close attention to Marquette’s efforts in slowing her down and keeping the ball out of her hands. Durr has scored 25 points or more eight times this season. Two of her finest performances came in two of her team’s biggest games — 47 points November 12 at Ohio State and 36 points January 11 at home in a win over Notre Dame. Durr isn’t the only one that can light it up, though. Hines-Allen dropped 31 on Notre Dame back in January, shooting 15-20 from the field.
As seen in their 84-65 first round victory over Dayton, Marquette has several talented scorers on its roster as well. Junior guard Natisha Hiedeman lit it up from the outside, connecting on eight of her 12 three-pointers en route to 32 points. Allazia Blockton, also a junior, has led the team in scoring this season at 18.6 points per game. Here’s a look at all eight of Hiedeman’s three-pointers:
Marquette’s top three reserves each look to shoot the three often (218 attempts between them, on which they’ve shot 30.9% this season) though no reserve logged more than 10 minutes against Dayton. Marquette’s starting five scored 82 of its 84 points on Friday.
With the help of HerHoopStats, here’s a look at the Four Factors (defined in their glossary) for each team:
Both teams shoot it well, ranking in the top-40 nationally in effective field goal percentage, and profile quite similarly in the Four Factors. The Cardinals got a bit sloppy against Boise State, turning it over 17 times (nine in the first half). As seen in the shot chart from their opening round win, Louisville did nearly all its damage right at the rim:
And here’s where Marquette’s shots came from against Dayton:
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Marquette won the turnover battle by nine against the Flyers on Friday. They’ll need Hiedeman to stay hot and to keep their turnovers down as they aim to knock off a one seed in their own building.
Stats provided via HerHoopStats, shot charts via ESPN.