’I thought we fought hard.’ UK refuses to fold but can’t topple No. 1 Gamecocks.
Exactly one week after pulling off its first win over a top-10 opponent since 2017, the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team got a second shot at the top-ranked team in the nation.
The Wildcats put up a fight, but they failed to pull off the upset. No. 1 South Carolina exploited an advantage in the post and defeated 14th-ranked UK 67-58 in Memorial Coliseum on Sunday. The Gamecocks used a similar formula when they beat the Cats by 27 in Columbia on Jan. 2.
“I thought we had some chances at some critical points where we just couldn’t make a bucket,” UK Coach Matthew Mitchell said. “But I thought, if you look at it over the course of 40 minutes, I think there was some tremendous effort from our team as well … We will learn from where we made our mistakes today and try to get better, but I thought we fought hard.”
Zia Cooke scored a team-high 20 for South Carolina, which clinched the Southeastern Conference regular-season title with the win. The Gamecocks outscored UK in the paint 38-14 and outrebounded the Cats 38-31. Kentucky (20-6, 9-5 SEC) scored just three fast-break points and was held without a rebound in the second half until less than 10 seconds remained in the third quarter.
UK’s Rhyne Howard scored a game-high 24 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, but South Carolina made life incredibly difficult on the sophomore star. Howard scored 12 of her points from the foul line and went just five of 22 from the field. Late in the fourth quarter she tried to score through a double-team and went to the floor hard, staying down for several seconds as teammates came to help her up and a UK staffer checked on her.
Howard believes UK’s refusal to wilt after falling behind by 17 in the third quarter is a sign it can hang with the best teams in the country.
“We can take away that we (showed) that we can compete with them. They’re the No. 1 team in the country, but I think we did a lot of good things today,” Howard said.
A packed house showed up to watch the top-15 matchup and its energy seemed to ignite the Cats out of the gate. KeKe McKinney nailed a three for the first points of the game. Jaida Roper’s stop-and-pop jumper near the foul line put UK ahead 9-4 as the crowd erupted.
But South Carolina used its speed and size to dominate the rest of the opening period. The Gamecocks outscored UK 23-5 the rest of the first quarter, which they ended on a 15-0 run en route to a 27-14 lead. South Carolina outscored UK in the paint 20-2 and forced seven turnovers in the first.
After looking like they might get run out of the gym early, the Cats came back to life in the second quarter. Amanda Paschal ended UK’s five-plus minute scoring drought with an elbow jumper. Ogechi Anyagaligbo’s layup off a screen-and-go capped a 9-0 UK run that prompted a South Carolina timeout and brought the crowd to its feet.
Carolina quelled the UK surge by once again attacking the paint. After a pair of layups and five points from the foul line, the Gamecocks led 40-30 at halftime.
Kentucky will close its home schedule against Georgia during Senior Night on Thursday.
“It’s always disappointing to lose and we’re going to have to do what we’ve done every time this year and bounce back from a defeat and go get a victory Thursday night,” Mitchell said. “We have five really special seniors. It’s a very special senior class for us. We’ll be highly motivated to win.”
Welcome to the club
Just before the national anthem on Sunday, Matthew Mitchell presented Rhyne Howard with a game ball commemorating her entry to the program’s 1,000-point club.
Howard scored 26 points in last Sunday’s upset of then-No. 6 Mississippi State as she became the second-fastest player in program history — behind Valerie Still — to cross the 1,000-point threshold.
Next game
Georgia at No. 14 Kentucky
7 p.m. Thursday (SEC Plus)
This story was originally published February 23, 2020 at 4:20 PM.
