Sports

Cardinals on path to C-USA Championship

C-USA Notebook

Ernest Salas
 

Louisvilleis representing, and it just might be the best team in college basketball. Houston isnit a powerhouse, but the Cardinalsi 26-point win Saturday and their 77-71 victory over Cincinnati on Feb. 5 propelled the team to the No. 2 spot on The Associated Press poll.

The Cardinals (now 18-2, 8-1 in Conference USA) were riding a 17-game winning streak until they lost to Saint Louis on Wednesday, 59-58. A desperate three-point attempt from Reece Gaines fell short. Theyill need to rebound from that loss quickly before they travel to Milwaukee, Wis., to face No. 11 Marquette on Saturday.

Itis not just future Hall-of-Famer Rick Pitino thatis willing the Cardinals along. Gaines, Marvin Stone and Erik Brown are three of C-USAis best players. Then you add a guy like Francisco Garcia and suddenly, Louisville is unstoppable.

Garcia, a freshman, won the C-USA Co-Player of the Week award after he averaged 19 points, five rebounds and three assists last week. He scored 23 points and blocked two shots against Cincinnati off the bench.

He shared the award with Cincinnatiis John Maxiell. The sophomore averaged 22.5 points in two games for the Bearcats, including a 24-point performance during Cincinnatiis 61-50 upset win over then-No. 11 Oklahoma State on Sunday.

Marquetteis been quietly ascending the AP poll and might give the Cardinals a real game. The Golden Eagles have won 28 consecutive home games. Marquetteis Dwayne Wade leads the conference in scoring at 21.8 points per game. Despite that, Pitino should have his team primed for a close win.

The ladies

Two weeks ago, C-USA womenis basketball was ruled by a Princess (Swilley of Memphis). This week, it has "peaches." Charlotteis Peaches Harris was named the C-USA Co-Player of the Week after shooting 70 percent from the field against Cincinnati on Friday and hitting 11 three-pointers against Louisville on Sunday.

She shared the award with Southern Missi Allison Story, who led the Lady Golden Eagles to wins over Marquette and DePaul. Story averaged 18.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.

Those were solid stats to be sure, but they certainly werenit better than Houstonis own Chandi Jones. If the award were given to the best player each week, Jones would never give it up. She moved up to No. 7 on C-USAis all-time scoring list with 1,758 points and should be in the top five by the end of the season. Thatis probably the least of Houstonis concerns.

The top 12 of the conferenceis 14 womenis basketball teams make it to the C-USA Tournament in Memphis on March 6. As of now, the Lady Cougars are tied with East Carolina for that 12th spot. They need take care of business at home against Memphis on Friday and Saint Louis on Sunday.

There isnit a C-USA team within sniffing distance of making it onto the Womenis AP Top 25 poll. The Lady 49ers are still the conferenceis best team at 16-5 (8-0 in C-USA) and are on a 10-game winning streak.

 Send comments to dcsports@mail.uh.edu