By Kindsey Bernhard
NKyTribune intern
After losing back-to-back games on the road at Missouri and at home against South Carolina this week, UK Hoops bounced back with a win over Vanderbilt Sunday.
UK Hoops defeated Vandy 71-63 on Sunday afternoon in Memorial Coliseum. Kentucky moves to 16-8 on the season, 7-4 in the Southeastern Conference. This win puts UK sixth in the SEC standings.
“Even though we lost two games, one on the road and one at home to two very talented teams in the conference, two of the top three, top four teams in the conference, we are still right up there at the top,” Makayla Epps said. “I try to encourage the team, just remind them we want to get that top four seed so we can get that double bye come the first week of March” in the conference tournament.
UK Hoops’ recent struggles continued in the first quarter. The home team committed six turnovers in the first quarter and led by only two at the end of the first quarter. UK sorted things out in the second quarter and took a seven-point lead at halftime.
UK not only did a great job of not turning the ball over, they also caused a lot of turnovers. Vanderbilt head coach Stephanie White credits UK’s aggressiveness to her teams’ 21 turnovers.
“Credit Kentucky’s defense with disrupting us and forcing us into those turnovers,” White said.
“They trap you on the wing and they come at you and they fly all around and they’re pretty quick and athletic,” White said. “So I think what that did was force us to rush a little bit and get in a hurry to get rid of it.”
Epps scored 14 of her 23 points in the first half, which moved her into the top-five of points scored all-time in program history with 1,620. Epps finished with UK’s only two three-pointers, eight rebounds and five assists.
Vanderbilt never retook the lead, but they tied the game at 46 with 3:00 left in the third quarter. The tie did not last long. UK followed with a 9-0 run and led 55-46 heading into the fourth quarter.
Unlike UK’s last game against South Carolina, UK dominated in the paint. UK outscored Vanderbilt 42-20 inside due to Evelyn Akhator’s strong performance.
“I thought today that we were able to keep our poise enough, and even though Vanderbilt was trying to disrupt us, we kept our poise enough,” Mitchell said. “We were able to either get the ball in there to Evelyn and she scored or our guards were able to get their feet in the paint and score. You know, some of that came out of transition from our defense.”
Akhator, who scored eight points against Missouri and seven points against South Carolina, finished with 20 points and eight rebounds.
Taylor Murray had a strong bounce-back game as well. After scoring two points against South Carolina, she finished with 18 points and a team-high seven assists.
Despite UK’s success in the paint, they continued to struggle on the glass. Vanderbilt outrebounded UK 41-29, but only outscored UK 12-10 on second chance points.
“I thought one of the points of emphasis for out team was rebounding the basketball because Akhator is a beast down low,” White said. “I thought our attention to detail on that end, rebounding the basketball, was very good.
UK will travel to Georgia on Thursday to take on the Bulldogs at 7 p.m. Georgia is 11-11 on the season and 3-6 in the SEC. 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.