By Kindsey Bernhard
NKyTribune intern
Matthew Mitchell was without one of his starters when Kentucky defeated Radford University 59-36 Sunday afternoon in Memorial Coliseum.
But two freshmen filled in and acquitted themselves well as the women improved their season record to 8-3. UK Hoops is ranked 19th in the Associated Press poll and No. 25 in the USA Today poll.
Sophomore guard Taylor Murray, who had started every game for Kentucky, sat out with a broken finger. She suffered the injury during the game against Arizona State on Dec. 11.
True freshman Jaida Roper got her first start in Murray’s absence. She finished with two points and four rebounds in her career-high 25 minutes of play on Sunday.
Mitchell’s other true freshman, Paige Poffenberger, played a career-high 16 minutes. She finished with two points and three rebounds in the fourth game she has played this season.
Mitchell was impressed with Roper’s play.
“Jaida is a very confident young player,” Mitchell said. “Jaida believes in herself and believes in her ability to get things done.”
Mitchell says she has ways to go before she becomes the player she wants to be like any freshman basketball player in college.
“But what I love about her is that she will not shy away from responsibility,” Mitchell said. “She’ll take the bull by the horns and go play. I was concerned about if they did some things difficult for her to handle in the game, but I was not concerned about whether she’d go in and compete and have the confidence that she could fill in and do a good job.”
“Good time for me to step up and get some more minutes and play hard,” Roper said about her first start. “Just try to do what Taylor does, but she’s really helped me, motivational talks and telling me what to do. So she’s a big help.”
Roper who averaged nine minutes coming into this game told herself to just go out there and do her job and play hard.
Roper, a native of Memphis, committed to Kentucky in late May. ProspectsNation.com listed her as a four-star prospect out of high school.
Roper was a four-year letter winner at Houston High School. She led her team to many championships, including the Tennessee state tournament as a junior. Roper finished with 1,500 career points in high school, averaging 13.2 points per game and 5.2 assists per game.
Poffenberger, a native of Morganton, West Virginia, was added to the roster in early October as a walk-on.
“She really got after it and harassed their point guard,” Mitchell said. “Their point guard was uncomfortable. And she didn’t turn the ball over offensively. Made an open 15-footer. Kept it real simple.”
“I think Paige did a great job,” junior forward Alyssa Rice said. “We rely on our bench a lot. Just even their energy, we just feed off that. And when things can be bad and maybe our shots aren’t falling, just having that energy coming from the bench really helps our team and keeps us going.”
Mitchell said he needs Roper and Poffenberger to hustle and give his team something defensively while the team is without Murray.
“Proud of those two kids for coming in helping us out today.” Mitchell said. “Their minutes were big.“
“Big blow for us not having Taylor Murray,” head coach Mitchell said. “She’s been playing probably the best basketball of anybody on our team.”
Mitchell said Murray will “probably” be out for UK Hoops’ next game and will be reevaluated after.
UK Hoops returns to Memorial Coliseum to take on Washington State University on Wednesday at noon. The game will be televised on the SEC Network+. The Cougars of the PAC 12 are 5-5 and have lost three in a row.
Kindsey Bernhard is a journalism senior at the University of Kentucky. She is from Ft. Wright and played high school basketball at Notre Dame Academy.