Playing without its injured star, Kentucky rolls behind teammate’s career night
No Superwoman, no problem for the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team on Thursday night.
Amanda Paschal scored a career-high 18 points, leading the 13th-ranked Wildcats to a 62-47 victory at Missouri.
Sophomore star Rhyne Howard missed the game because of a fractured finger on her left hand which she suffered in Monday’s win over Auburn. Before Thursday’s game, Kentucky (17-3, 6-2 SEC) announced via its official Twitter account that Howard is expected to be out until mid-February.
Paschal hit eight of 14 shots from the field and also had five rebounds and three assists.
Paschal got a bit of inspiration when she attended a men’s team practice earlier this week and John Calipari discussed Howard’s injury.
“I heard something really important this week from Coach Cal as I was sitting in their practice,” Paschal said on the UK Radio Network postgame show. “He was just saying (while) Rhyne is out that’s just giving everybody a chance to get better. So when she comes back then it’s gonna be crazy.”
Paschal made Calipari seem prescient against the Tigers, as she tripled her season average of six points per game.
“The great thing about her is she’s always done whatever is asked and never tried to get out of what her role is,” said UK Coach Matthew Mitchell. “She got her feet in the paint so many times tonight and made those little mid-range jumpers that were huge for us.”
The Wildcats trailed 5-0 after missing their first five shots of the game, then went on an 11-0 run to take control. They held Missouri (5-16, 2-6) without a field goal for the last nine-plus minutes of the first quarter. Kentucky forced 21 turnovers and held the Tigers to 31-percent shooting.
“They really sharpened up mentally, and our full-court press gave (Auburn) fits in the first half where we really did great work to build a big lead,” Mitchell said. “I always felt like Missouri would make a run, and I felt like every time they did we were able to answer with some type of hustle play. We wanted to try to hustle our way to victory tonight, and we sure did.”
Blair Green chipped in 11 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. She hit a three-pointer in the closing seconds of the first half to give the Cats a 34-17 lead. Chasity Patterson came off the bench and scored 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
Mitchell said Howard’s absence gives the Cats a chance to become more well-rounded heading toward March.
“There’s so many ways that we can develop as a team and get better and not use her incredible ability to score as a security blanket,” he said on the pregame show. “We can work on sharpening up all the things we want to be by the end of the season so when she comes back we’re actually a stronger team because of all of this.”
Next game
Florida at No. 13 Kentucky
1 p.m. Sunday (SEC Network)
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 9:14 PM.
