‘They are extremely tough.’ Big Ten favorite Indiana revisits rivalry with UK women.
The University of Kentucky women’s basketball team will face its stiffest test so far this young season when the 11th-ranked Wildcats host No. 13 Indiana in Memorial Coliseum on Sunday at 4 p.m. It will mark the first game since 2006 between the historic rivals.
Kentucky (3-0) is coming off a hard-fought 60-49 victory over Kansas State in its first road game of the season. The trek to Lexington will be the first road trip of the season for Indiana (2-0), which on Thursday dominated Samford, 71-26. The Hoosiers opened the season with a 100-51 drubbing of Eastern Kentucky.
Indiana was voted by the Big Ten Conference coaches and media to win the league championship this year coming off a 24-8 season. Teri Moren, a two-year starter at Purdue who was part of the team that won the Boilermakers’ first Big Ten championship, is in her seventh season as head coach of the Hoosiers. She’s led Indiana to four straight seasons of 20-plus wins.
“They are well-coached. They are extremely tough,” UK interim head coach Kyra Elzy said of the Hoosiers after the Kansas State game. “It’s going to be another grind-it-out type of game. They’re physical, so they’re going to make us make plays offensively.”
Elzy will finally have a full complement of players at her disposal against the Hoosiers. Senior forward Tatyana Wyatt is eligible to make her season debut after serving a three-game suspension. Preseason All-American and national player of the year candidate Rhyne Howard took the floor for the first time this year against Kansas State after completing her two-game suspension.
Howard struggled with her jump shot against Kansas State, going 3-for-14 from the field and missing all seven of her three-point tries, but the junior guard was active on defense and hit the boards hard. Howard had eight points, six rebounds and two steals.
It was just the eighth time Howard has scored fewer than 10 points in her UK career, and recent history suggests she could be in for a big bounce-back game against the Hoosiers. The last two times Howard failed to reach double digits, she followed up with 24- and 25-point performances.
An emerging star for the Wildcats, Dre’una Edwards, notched her second straight double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds against Kansas State. The 6-foot-2 sophomore forward has provided UK with some sorely needed size and skill in the post while demonstrating deft ball-handling skills that fit nicely with the Wildcats’ up-tempo offense.
Kentucky will probably need another big effort in the paint from Edwards against Indiana. The Hoosiers are huge; boasting five players who are 6-foot-2 or taller. The team is led in scoring by 6-foot-3 sophomore forward MacKenzie Holmes, who averages 19.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
Junior forward Aleksa Gulbe, at 6-foot-3, averages 7.5 points and 8.0 rebounds. The Hoosiers have a pair of 6-foot-5 centers in freshman Arielle Wisne and sophomore Hannah Noveroske.
While Indiana’s size will pose a major challenge for UK, a guard from the Bluegrass State could also prove tough to contain. Louisville native and Sacred Heart graduate Grace Berger is putting together a standout career for the Hoosiers.
Berger was named to the All-Big Ten First Team last year as a sophomore after averaging 13.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists. So far as a junior, she’s averaging 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 8.0 assists. Another Louisville native, Butler graduate Jaelynn Penn, started all 32 games for the Hoosiers last year as a junior and earned an all-conference honorable mention nod after averaging 10.6 points and 4.5 rebounds. She had eight points and eight boards in the win over Samford.
The overall series between the Wildcats and Hoosiers is tied 12-12. The first meeting was in 1974, and the teams played each other every year from 1978-90. Indiana has won the last six games of the series.
Sunday
No. 13 Indiana at No. 11 Kentucky
When: 4 p.m.
Where: Memorial Coliseum (limited spectators)
TV: ESPNU
Radio: WBUL-FM 98.5
Series: Tied 12-12
Last meeting: Indiana won, 54-51, on Nov. 12, 2006, in Memorial Coliseum.
