By Kindsey Bernhard
NKyTribune intern
Down three members of its bench, Kentucky Hoops filled its lineup with desire and effort and held Ole Miss to one of its lowest offensive efforts of the season in an 89-57 win Thursday in Memorial Coliseum.
Guards Makenzie Cann and Jessica Hardin, who both play a significant role coming off the bench, and Rachel Potter, recovering from a concussion, were all out of the lineup.
But others stepped up, and UK won by its largest margin in an SEC contest this season. UK Hoops moves to 15-6 on the season and 6-2 in the SEC.
The team learned of Cann’s illness late Wednesday afternoon, which did not give the players a lot of time to prepare.
“Just a big blow to our rotation,” coach Matthew Mitchell said. “Foul trouble could bother you. There are so many things that could have messed us up.”
He told freshmen Jaida Roper and Paige Poffenberger they were going to have to step up, and they did. Both played 18 minutes. Roper scored 7 points with 5 assists, while Poffenberger pulled down two rebounds and contributed two assists.
“We were short-handed and everyone had to pick up the slack and they did, and it was just a great team win,” Mitchell said.
The defense stepped up in a big way. Ole Miss was averaging 70.4 points per game coming into the game. UK held Ole Miss to its second-lowest scoring game. Ole Miss scored 46 points against No. 5 South Carolina and 57 points against Alabama.
Kentucky shot 58 percent while holding Ole Miss to 37.7 percent. The home team outrebounded the visitors 38-23.
“Kentucky’s kids played a lot more motivated than us and a lot harder than us,” Ole Miss head coach Matt Insell said.
Ole Miss turned the ball over 19 times, and Kentucky took advantage, scoring 25 points on the turnovers.
Insell said his players were just throwing the ball to the wrong colored jerseys. “It wasn’t like Kentucky was doing anything to stop us from doing it,” Insell said of his team’s turnovers.
Without Cann, who plays both the three and four positions, Makayla Epps and Maci Morris had to fill in. Epps said Mitchell had her guarding the four position on defense and Morris playing the four position on offense.
“But that’s stuff we do in practice too, so you know, it was weird without Makenzie being there, (and Mitchell) subbing in five-foot-nothing kids in (Poffenberger) and (Roper),” Epps said. “But you know it’s something we had to do. We had a little diversity, but it didn’t really tweak the game much.”
Cann, a transfer junior, has come off the bench in all but three games this season. She leads the team in 3-point shooting and is averaging 7.0 points and 3.9 rebounds.
Hardin was sidelined after receiving a concussion against Duke on Jan. 29. She has missed seven-straight games while working through concussion protocol. The transfer senior is averaging 3.5 points and 1.5 rebounds this season off the bench.
Without Cann and Hardin, UK’s bench only 9 points to Ole Miss’ 32.
UK Hoops was also without junior walk-on Rachel Potter. Potter has played in two games this season for the Wildcats.
Despite being down three players, UK Hoops came out strong and never looked back. Kentucky finished the second quarter on an 18-2 run during the final five minutes. UK Hoops outscored Missouri 22-6 in the second quarter.
Evelyn Akhator continued her high scoring with yet another dominant performance. She led her team with 28 points and 13 rebounds, her twelfth double-double of the season. Epps finished with 20 points and Morris added 17 points.
UK Hoops will travel to Columbia on Sunday to take on the Missouri Tigers at 7 p.m. Missouri is riding a four-game win streak. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
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.