Burke, Wright key surge as No. 23 Louisville breezes past Tennessee Tech 84-54

No. 23 Louisville beats Tennessee Tech 84-54

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Becky Burke scored 16 points and No. 23 Louisville overcame a sloppy first half to beat Tennessee Tech 84-54 on Sunday.

Chauntise Wright added 15 points and Deseree Byrd has 12 points, eight rebounds and three assists for the Cardinals (2-1), who bounced back from a 62-50 loss at Hartford on Tuesday.

Tacarra Hayes led Tennessee Tech (1-3) with 20 points and six rebounds but the Golden Eagles shot just 28 percent from the floor and turned it over 20 times.

Louisville led 28-24 at the half before pouring it on over the final 20 minutes. Wright, coming off knee surgery that forced her to sit out last year, keyed a second-half surge as the Cardinals wore down the Golden Eagles.

“They really didn’t have an answer for her,” said Louisville coach Jeff Walz.

The Cardinals needed the boost after letting the Golden Eagles hang around until about midway through the second half. Louisville led just 48-41 with 10:28 to play before finally breaking free with some crisp passing.

“Right now a lot of our problems that we’re having offensively is just a simple fact we’ve got a lot of freshmen out there that are used to being the ‘go-to’ player in high school,” Walz said. “We got a little better in the second half of trying to create for your teammates.”

Walz pledged to go into “boot camp” mode after the Cardinals stumbled at Hartford. Despite seeing signs of progress in the last 10 minutes, he said his team still has a long way to go.

Louisville may also have to do it without Byrd, who is debating on having knee surgery. Byrd laughed when asked how healthy she is, offering only a “no comment.”

The Cardinals committed 21 turnovers on Sunday, numbers that Walz fears will go up if his point guard can’t play.