Kentucky women on wrong end of rout as Tennessee controls the paint in Knoxville
It’s gut-check time for the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team.
Playing a rescheduled game for the second time in four days, the 12th-ranked Wildcats were dominated by No. 25 Tennessee in Knoxville on Sunday. The Volunteers parlayed their superior size into a 70-53 victory, halting a three-game losing streak to the Cats.
Tennessee (10-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) successfully bogged down the action, preventing the Cats from dialing up their transition game and dominating the paint. The Volunteers outrebounded UK 56-25 and scored 44 points in the paint to 18 for the Cats.
“We got knocked down tonight,” UK Coach Kyra Elzy said. “Hats off to Tennessee, they played well. They were aggressive offensively and defensively. We did not match their intensity nor their energy … It’s a long season. You get back up and go back home and watch the film. I’ll reevaluate myself along with the staff and we’ll watch as a team and fix our mistakes.”
Kentucky (11-4, 4-3 SEC) was forced to settle for jumpers all afternoon and the iron was unkind. The Cats shot a season-low 29 percent from the field and went 7-for-24 from three-point range.
Rennia Davis pulled down 20 boards and scored 15 points for the Vols.
Chasity Patterson had 15 points and four assists to lead UK, knocking down six of 15 field goals. Robyn Benton scored 11 points off the bench, hitting four of seven shots. She had a five-point burst that pulled UK within 10 midway through the third.
Tennessee’s Tamari Key scored a game-high 19 points on 8-for-10 shooting and added four rebounds. Volunteers’ forward Rae Burrell played masterful defense on Rhyne Howard, holding UK’s superstar to just 14 points on 3-for-16 shooting. Burrell scored 13 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
“We take pride in our defense, definitely,” Key said. “We were all focused. We didn’t want Rhyne to have a game today. I feel like a lot of the teams we play, the leading scorers always have their worst game against us.”
Elzy said Howard had no lingering affects from an injury that sidelined her last week against Vanderbilt.
“Rhyne’s ankle is fine, she just didn’t shoot the ball well tonight. And that happens sometimes,” Elzy said. “What we talked about in the locker room, we lived and died by the three. So, when the outside shot’s not going we can’t panic offensively, we have to continue to execute our sets.”
Sunday’s game marked the first trip to her alma mater as a head coach for UK’s Elzy. The Oldham County High School star spent five years at Tennessee under legendary coach Pat Summitt (redshirting one year because of injury) and won two national championships with the Vols. Elzy and current Volunteers head coach Kellie Harper were teammates for three years at Tennessee.
Kentucky came out ice-cold in the first quarter. The Cats hit just one of their first nine shots as Tennessee used an 11-0 run to forge ahead 12-3, prompting a UK timeout.
The Cats came out of the stoppage with renewed energy. After missing her first three shots, Howard nailed a three-pointer to halt the Tennessee run.
Kentucky began the second quarter with a 6-0 run capped by a steal and run-out layup by Dre’una Edwards that tied the game 18-18, but Tennessee’s Burrell immediately responded with a three-pointer to reclaim the lead for the Vols. That was the start of a 7-0 run that gave the Vols a 25-18 edge.
Kentucky headed to the locker room trailing by just five, 27-22, despite shooting 28 percent from the field and being outrebounded 25-15.
Tennessee opened the second half on a 6-0 run — all on layups by Key — to open its first double-digit lead at 33-22. A UK timeout failed to stem the tide. UK missed six straight shots as the Vols closed the third quarter on an 8-0 run and led 49-31 heading into the fourth.
Tide coming to town
Next up for the Cats is a meeting with Alabama in Memorial Coliseum on Thursday night. The Crimson Tide defeated Auburn 67-55 on Sunday for their fourth win in five games.
Which version of Alabama (11-2, 4-2 SEC) will show up in Memorial Coliseum? Last weekend the Tide were routed by Tennessee, at one point trailing by 29 on their way to an 82-56 home loss. Three days earlier the Tide defeated No. 14 Mississippi State on the road 86-78.
Alabama Coach Kristy Curry believed the effort against Tennessee was an anomaly.
“You can’t miss 14 layups and 10 free throws, which is 38 points. You have to be able to finish those easy buckets,” Curry said following the loss. “We made things really hard on ourselves offensively today … That’s uncharacteristic of who we’ve been.”
Alabama senior forward Jasmine Walker had put up four straight double-doubles heading into Sunday’s game. She was the SEC’s third-leading scorer — tied with Rhyne Howard — at 19.8 points per game. She was also the league’s third-leading rebounder (10.2). Walker was voted to this year’s preseason All-SEC Second Team.
Senior guard Jordan Lewis (16.9) and senior forward Ariyah Copeland (14.7) also average double figures for the Tide.
Next game
Alabama at No. 12 Kentucky
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
This story was originally published January 24, 2021 at 4:14 PM.
