Howard posts double-double, but Cats crushed on the inside in loss at Mississippi
Post play has been the Achilles heel of the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team all season long. On Thursday, that deficiency translated into a brutal loss.
Mississippi dominated the paint and knocked off the 15th-ranked Wildcats 72-60 in Oxford, Miss., halting a six-game losing streak for the Rebels.
As it has much of the season, Kentucky struggled to contain the dribble-drive offense and hit the boards. The Rebels routinely blew by defenders for close-range runners and layups, outscoring UK in the paint 42-20. They outrebounded the Cats 49-34. Kentucky (13-5 overall, 6-4 Southeastern Conference) has been outrebounded in six of its last seven games.
“Credit to Ole Miss, I thought they came out aggressive. They had a lot of energy, intensity,” UK Coach Kyra Elzy said during a postgame teleconference. “Our game plan was to keep them out of the paint. We did not get a body on somebody. They got 17 offensive rebounds and then we just gave them 42 points in the paint, which is way too many.”
Mississippi (8-7, 2-7 SEC) was led by Shakira Austin. The 6-foot-5 junior forward had 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting and pulled down 12 rebounds.
On a night when she struggled to knock down shots, UK star Rhyne Howard attempted to lead the Cats back from a 13-point halftime deficit. UK trailed by eight after three quarters, and Howard was the only Wildcat to score in the fourth. Each of her two fourth-quarter three-pointers pulled the Cats within five, but they would get no closer down the stretch.
Howard scored a game-high 26 points but hit just seven of 26 shots from the field. She went 2-for-10 from beyond the arc and 10-for-14 from the foul line. She pulled down 10 rebounds to notch her second straight double-double and added four assists.
“I was just trying to put the team on my back,” Howard said. “I knew that I could get to the rim and draw some fouls. If I was getting things going I knew that I could probably get my teammates going as well.”
Howard expects the team to turn the page quickly and respond well to the loss.
“We know all of our mistakes are fixable,” Howard said. “So, we’re going to come back harder. We’re going to work harder, we’re going to focus in and lock in and do all the little things that we need to do to bounce back.”
Chasity Patterson was the only other Wildcat to score in double-figures, pitching in 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting. No other UK player scored more than five points.
Elzy echoed Howard’s belief that the Cats still have time shore up their weaknesses.
“Everything that happened to us (is) fixable,” Elzy said. “I did not like our intensity and our energy … That’s why you go back to practice and go to work. Boxing out, that is fixable. One-on-one defense, that is fixable as well. We had lack of offensive execution (and) spacing. So, we’ll go back to work.”
Blair Green and Howard paced the Cats early on. Green’s second jumper of the first quarter gave the team a 6-5 lead. Howard scored her second bucket through contact and sank the free throw to make it 9-5 UK, but the Cats went stagnant.
Mississippi leaned on its dribble-drive offense to attack the basket. The Rebels went on an 8-0 run and forged a 17-14 lead as UK went nearly five minutes without scoring. UK’s Patterson ended the drought with a layup with two seconds left in the first quarter.
Two Kentucky turnovers in the first half-minute of the second quarter led to a pair of Mississippi layups and a timeout by the Cats. The struggle continued for UK out of the break.
After a three-pointer by Patterson pulled the Cats within 27-24, the Cats missed seven of their final eight shots of the quarter and went more than five minutes without a field goal. Kentucky’s only points during that stretch came on four free throws by Howard. A late steal by Mississippi’s Donnetta Johnson led to a run-out bucket by Austin and a 41-28 halftime lead for the Rebels.
Jazmine Massengill gave the Cats a much-needed injection of energy. She started the second half in place of Green and nailed an early three-pointer to cut UK’s deficit to 10. She then came up with a steal that led to a layup from Howard and moments later forced another turnover that led to a Patterson three, pulling UK within 43-40.
The Rebels stretched the lead back to 10 before a late Massengill jumper made it 55-47, Mississippi, heading into the fourth quarter.
Vols on deck, game in doubt?
The Cats now get to enjoy an extended break before embarking upon their last six games of the regular season. With no game scheduled this weekend, UK next faces Tennessee on Thursday, Feb. 11 in Rupp Arena. At least, that’s the plan.
The Volunteers paused all team activities this week following a positive COVID-19 test among the program’s Tier 1 personnel — which includes coaches, players, team managers and support staff. Tennessee was supposed to play at Mississippi State on Thursday and at Texas A&M on Sunday but both of those games have been postponed.
As of Thursday night, the Feb. 11 game against Kentucky was still scheduled to be played.
In the first matchup between the teams this season on Jan. 24, Tennessee leaned on its superior size and routed Kentucky 70-53. The Vols outrebounded the Cats 56-25 and outscored them in the paint 44-18. That loss ended UK’s three-game win streak in the series.
Next game
No. 18 Tennessee at No. 15 Kentucky
Where: Rupp Arena
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Online: SEC Network Plus
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 9:33 PM.
