Evans leads No. 5 Louisville to 85-67 win over UT Martin

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — As the only senior Louisville’s squad, Dana Evans has embraced the role of the team’s leader. On Sunday, that meant providing the offense on a day when her teammates were struggling.

The preseason All-American scored 26 points to lead the No. 5 Cardinals to an 85-67 victory over UT Martin.

After shooting 60.5% and scoring a record amount of points in Friday’s 116-75 win over No. 20 DePaul, the Cardinals (4-0) struggled early on Sunday. They made just five of their first 21 shots. However, they used an 18-3 run over the final 6:58 of the first half to take a 40-27 halftime lead and break away from a solid Skyhawks squad playing their first game of the season.

Evans, last season’s Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year, scored 10 of her points during that spurt.

“If shots aren’t falling for us, I gotta find a way to get to the basket, get some easy ones going or whether that’s jumping a passing lane getting an easy bucket, but just doing something to get this team going,” Evans said. “Because I like always say we’re young, we’re talented, but I still have to be that leader.”

The senior guard made 9-of-18 shots, including 4-of-9 3-pointers to lead Louisville, which shot 42% from the floor. She sat after three quarters and finished just two points shy of tying her career high set last year against Oklahoma State.

Louisville coach Jeff Walz said he didn’t rest Evans because of the tight turnaround between games. Rather, he was just trying to get some playing time for his younger players in a game where Louisville never trailed by less than 10 points after halftime.

“The unselfishness that this team shows is what we’re going to continue to need for us to continue to be successful and hopefully have a chance to...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Evans-leads-No-5-Louisville-to-85-67-win-over-UT-15779971.php