By Kindsey Bernhard
NKyTribune Intern
A height disadvantage did not stop 17th-ranked UK Hoops from handing No. 12 Oklahoma its first loss of the season with an 82-68 win on Thursday night at Memorial Coliseum.
Foul trouble limited UK Hoops’ two tallest players, forward Evelyn Akhator and center Alyssa Rice. They played the fewest minutes of UK’s starters against Oklahoma.
Rice picked up two personal fouls with three minutes left in the first quarter and sat until the start of the second half. Akhator quickly followed picked up her second foul at the beginning of the second quarter and took a seat on the bench too.
UK’s tallest player until the start of second half was 6-foot-1 Makenzie Cann.
Oklahoma (5-1) saw the height advantage in the second quarter and quickly subbed in 6-foot-9 freshman Nancy Mulkey. Mulkey is the tallest female basketball player in women’s college basketball.
UK (6-1) turned to the 2-3 zone as the only way to defend against the height difference. Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell said Makayla Epps, who measures 5-foot-10, wanted the job of guarding the foot taller Mulkey.
“She told me that ‘I’m gonna go in the middle. Put me in the middle. We can get this done’,” Mitchell said. “I mean it was really good I think for the team because that had to be uncomfortable for everybody, it certainly was with me. It’s good that we faced that because we need to give a look to that.”
“It was just weird to see five guards playing a 2-3 zone with me in the middle,” Epps said. “I never would have expected playing a 2-3 zone in college being the middle person. But I felt the five guards got there and battled.”
Mitchell doesn’t want Epps guarding their opponent’s biggest player all season, but he says she is very capable.
“She is uniquely capable because she is the strongest player I’ve ever coached now,” Mitchell said.
Kentucky trailed 39-37 at halftime then outscored the visitors 45-29 in the second half for the 14-point final margin. Epps scored 30 points and led the team in scoring for the fourth time this season.
Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said UK’s zone disrupted her team’s rhythm.
“I think we probably got a little too conscientious of that,” Coale said her team trying to force the ball inside.
Coale said despite having the advantage on the offensive side of the ball, her team struggled more during that time.
“The reverse was difficult though,” Coale said. “I mean yes, their bigs were out but they had shooters in that our five men had to run around and guard. So it wasn’t as one-sided as it might have seemed.”
UK Hoops will travel to Louisville on Sunday to play the 7th-ranked Louisville Cardinals. The game is at 2 p.m. and will be televised on the ACC Network Extra.
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.