By Kindsey Bernhard
NKyTribune Intern
Matthew Mitchell’s women’s basketball team enters its game Sunday, looking to end its two-game losing skid when it hosts 11-11 Vanderbilt, sitting in last place in the Southeastern Conference at 1-8.
During the game, UK will honor four Wildcat legends. Bernadette Madigan-Dugan is UK’s 2017 SEC Legend and will represent the university at the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament. Madigan-Dugan won the NCAA two-mile run in 1982, the first UK woman to win a national track championship.
At halftime, UK will recognize three women who have provided exceptional leadership, presenting them with the Sue Feamster Trailblazer Award.
But the main business of the game, which starts at noon, is ending a two-game losing streak, as the women lost to Missouri on Monday and to South Carolina on Thursday.
South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson measures 6-foot-5, two inches taller than UK’s tallest player, Evelyn Akhator, who stands 6-foot-3.
The Gamecocks, ranked fourth in the AP poll and sixth in the USA poll, used that height advantage in their 75-63 win over UK, ranked 25th, at Memorial Coliseum. The loss dropped UK to 15-8 overall and 6-4 in the SEC. UK sits at sixth place in the conference standings, one game behind three teams who are tied at 6-3.
South Carolina’s frontcourt dominated in the paint, outscoring UK 34-20. The Gamecock’s two tallest players, Wilson and 6-foot-4 Alaina Coates, each scored a team-high 20 points.
“In our league there are just some teams that maybe have some size and have some big kids,” UK head coach Matthew Mitchell said. “And we have decent size with Alyssa (Rice) and Evelyn (Ahkator), but you know Wilson and Coates are just a different level of athlete. And they are fantastic athletes.”
South Carolina not only dominated in the paint but also the boards. UK was outrebounded 40-29. Coates recorded a double-double with 18 rebounds and Wilson pulled down nine.
“Coates and Wilson are just so tough there at the rim,” Mitchell said. “It’s hard if you’re not making some shots. It can snowball pretty quick for you because it’s hard to get to the rim.”
“They’re really big down low,” sophomore Maci Morris said. “They have really tall guards as well, so it did have an effect on some of us.”
Morris knows this isn’t the last time her team will face an opponent with such a height advantage. UK will play South Carolina again and other tall teams in the NCAA Tournament.
“We’re going to have to face teams with their size in the future, and we’re going to have to face them again in the future,” Morris said. “So we’re gonna have to learn how to deal with it.“
Akhator, who is averaging 15.1 points per game, scored seven points. That was the fifth time this season she fell short of 10 points.
UK Hoops’ second tallest player, Alyssa Rice, who measures 6-foot-3, had one of her best games this season. Rice, who was averaging 3.7 points per game, tied a season-high with 10 points.
South Carolina had a 3-point lead heading into the second quarter, but went on 18-0 run to end the quarter with a 42-23 lead. South Carolina outscored UK 22-8 in the second quarter.
“We were pushing the ball,” South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said on her team’s second-quarter run. “I think we didn’t rely on just, you know, our half court offense. I thought we turned them over a little bit and pushed the ball down the floor and got some easy buckets.”
“Sometimes when you got a run going on like that, it’s hard to stop the bleeding,” Staley said. “No matter if it’s us or them against us.”
Morris said if it weren’t for the second quarter, UK could have beaten South Carolina.
“I think we just had bad shot selection, and we just turned the ball over too many times,” Morris said. “If we would have fixed that and we would have knocked down shots, then I feel like it would have been a much better ball game.”
Makayla Epps, who left the game in the final minutes with an ankle injury, scored a team-high 23 points.
UK will face South Carolina again on Sunday, Feb. 26, the final of six games remaining before the SEC tournament begins. The game Sunday against Vanderbilt will be televised on the SEC Network at noon.
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.