Howard’s dominant performance leads No. 17 Kentucky women to win at Florida
With the regular season winding down, University of Kentucky women’s basketball star Rhyne Howard is making her case for National Player of the Year.
Howard scored from everywhere on the floor to lead the 17th-ranked Wildcats to an 88-80 victory over Florida in Gainesville on Monday night.
Howard erupted for 31 points on 12-for-20 shooting — including 4-for-7 from three-point range — and grabbed nine rebounds. She helped rescue the Wildcats after they nearly surrendered a big lead late.
Following Thursday’s win over Tennessee in which she played a great all-around game but scored just eight points, Howard was determined to make a bigger impact in the scoring column.
“I knew I had to come in ... and be more of a threat offensively but it did also kind of just come to me,” Howard said. “I was just knocking down shots and they were just falling for me.”
After building a 16-point advantage in the third quarter, the Wildcats got sloppy. A slew of UK turnovers helped Florida open the fourth on an 11-3 run to pull within 73-70. But following a timeout, Kentucky responded with a 12-3 run to pull away that included five points from Howard.
“She did a great a job of coming off the screen, hitting open threes (and) getting to the basket and finishing through contact,” UK Coach Kyra Elzy said of Howard’s night.
Senior forward KeKe McKinney also came up big in the win. She scored 13 points and hit a crucial jumper late in the fourth to put the Cats up 10. UK’s new-look backcourt also put in work. Chasity Patterson had 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting. Jazmine Massengill nearly had a double-double with nine points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
Kentucky (15-5 overall, 8-4 SEC) shot 54 percent from the field, including 8-for-18 from three-point range.
Massengill drew her second straight start at point guard. Following last Thursday’s big victory over Tennessee in her first start as a Wildcat since transferring in April, Massengill called herself a “facilitator” and a “pass-first point guard.” She certainly looked the part against the Gators, dishing out five assists in the first quarter.
“She understands our offense,” Elzy said of her emerging point-guard weapon. “She has great size, athleticism ... I like that she’s playing aggressive offensively. She went downhill in a couple of our sets and scored layups. She’s an unbelievable passer. She has great court vision and she knows how to set her teammates up to score.”
The Cats apparently have more work to do on defense. They allowed the Gators to shoot 52 percent overall and 56 percent from the perimeter (10-18). Florida won the rebound battle 36-30, while UK scored 40 points in the paint to 32 for the Gators.
Florida (10-9, 3-8 SEC) was dealt a devastating blow Monday when it was announced 6-foot-1 sophomore guard Lavender Briggs would miss the remainder of the season because of a foot injury. A member of last season’s All-Southeastern Conference Freshman Team, Briggs was Florida’s leading scorer and fourth in the SEC with an average of 19.5 points per game. But the Gators early on appeared determined to rally together in their star’s absence.
After Kentucky jumped out to a 6-0 lead on back-to-back three-pointers from Patterson and Howard, Florida fought back to tie the game at 17. Two straight buckets from Massengill gave the Cats a 21-19 edge heading into the second quarter.
A pair of three-pointers by Danielle Rainey were part of a 10-2 Florida run to open the second. After falling behind 29-23, the Cats called timeout and responded with renewed energy on defense.
Patterson forced a tied-up off a missed UK free throw to preserve possession, then nailed a three. She attacked the basket the next time down court to pull the Cats within 35-32. Howard heated up down the stretch in the first half for Kentucky. She scored nine points in the closing moments giving Kentucky the lead for good, 45-43, on a jumper. The Cats closed the half on a 10-0 run and hit six of their last seven shots to take a 47-42 lead into the locker room.
Howard’s fourth three of the night was part of a 17-1 run that gave UK its biggest lead, 68-52, late in the third quarter.
SEC race update
With Monday’s win at Florida, Kentucky kept pace with Georgia in the SEC standings. The Wildcats and Bulldogs are tied for fourth place — two games ahead of fifth-place LSU — with four games to go in the regular season. The top four finishers in the league traditionally receive byes in the SEC Tournament.
UK has a chance to put more distance between itself and LSU when it hosts the Tigers on Thursday. The Wildcats are scheduled to face Georgia in Athens on Feb. 25 before ending the regular season at home against Mississippi on Feb. 28.
South Carolina leads the SEC with a 12-0 league record (17-2 overall), while Texas A&M is second at 10-1 (19-1 overall). Tennessee is third at 6-3 (12-5 overall), having had multiple games canceled or postponed because of COVID protocols — including Tuesday’s scheduled game at Mississippi State.
Tiger time
LSU will meet UK in Memorial Coliseum on Thursday looking to end a three-game losing streak. The Tigers are in the midst of a brutal stretch of their schedule; the Wildcats will be the fifth ranked opponent they’ve faced in their last seven games.
LSU lost at No. 1 South Carolina on Sunday, 66-59. The Tigers fell to the Gamecocks by four points on the road on Jan. 24, then rebounded with a 60-52 win at No. 22 Georgia four days later.
Next game
LSU at No. 17 Kentucky
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
TV: SEC Network Plus
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
This story was originally published February 15, 2021 at 9:07 PM.
