UK women’s team ready for another shot at Gamecocks. ‘We’re a different team.’
A demanding challenge for the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team likely became even tougher this week.
No. 2 South Carolina carried a 31-game Southeastern Conference winning streak into Thursday’s road bout at No. 21 Tennessee. The Gamecocks departed Knoxville with a loss on their league record for the first time since the 2018-19 season, falling to the Volunteers 75-67. Tennessee senior Rennia Davis returned to the lineup after missing the Vols’ loss at Kentucky because of COVID-19 protocols and fueled the upset by scoring 24 points in the second half.
Now, facing the threat of back-to-back losses for the first time since 2018, the Gamecocks carry extra motivation into Sunday’s meeting with the 17th-ranked Wildcats in Columbia.
Kentucky Coach Kyra Elzy told the media during a Friday teleconference that she and her staff had already studied Thursday’s game between the Vols and Gamecocks. But if any secret formula for defeating the defending league champion Gamecocks revealed itself, Elzy wasn’t tipping her hand.
“It was a great game for women’s basketball. South Carolina is a top team for a reason, they have a lot of talent,” Elzy said. “We’re just going into the game focusing on the things that we need to do well.”
It has been yet another week full of uncertainty for the Wildcats, who’ve won back-to-back games and four of their last five. Originally scheduled to host LSU on Thursday, that game was first postponed to Friday and later delayed indefinitely because of the dangerous winter weather affecting travel. The weather also forced UK to remain in Gainesville overnight following its victory at Florida on Monday.
“This year has been like no other, and this is where resilience and mental toughness really plays a factor,” Elzy said. “So, we get stuck in Florida, we start preparing for LSU. And then the game is gonna be moved to Friday. Then the game is postponed. Our players went into practice yesterday thinking we were preparing for LSU, then I had to inform them, ‘No, this game has been postponed and now we are preparing for South Carolina.
“They’ve handled it all year, and we are not the only team that has to deal with adjustments. It’s just part of the course right now.”
Kentucky and South Carolina have already met once this season, with the Gamecocks rallying from nine down at halftime to knock off the Cats 75-70 in Lexington on Jan. 10. Carolina used a 25-point third quarter in which it pounded the Cats near the basket to pull ahead.
The Gamecocks outrebounded UK 46-31 and scored 56 points in the paint, with 6-foot-5 sophomore forward Aliyah Boston’s 20-point, 12-rebound, seven-block performance leading the way. Junior guard Destanni Henderson went for 22 points and eight boards as Carolina shot 47 percent from the field.
Rhyne Howard had 32 points and seven rebounds for the Cats, but she went 0-for-5 from three-point range. The Cats hit just three of 20 perimeter shots as a team.
Elzy believes you can ignore all those numbers when looking ahead to Sunday’s rematch.
“We’re a different team than when we played them the first time,” she said. “We did a lot of great things against South Carolina. The end result didn’t go in our favor, but you have to learn and grow with each game.”
‘A change for the better’
During UK’s consecutive wins over Tennessee and Florida, the Cats have started a new-look backcourt with Jazmine Massengill playing point and Chasity Patterson at shooting guard. It has been a lethal combination so far.
Massengill has combined for 20 points and 13 assists with just two turnovers in the two victories. Patterson has scored 34 points combined, raising her season scoring average from 12.6 to 13.1 over the course of two games.
Judging by Elzy’s review, Kentucky’s new starting backcourt might be set in stone for the remainder of the season.
“The backcourt has looked great to me,” Elzy said. “Jazmine makes us different. She’s an athletic point guard with size … It has really freed Chasity Patterson up at the ‘2’ spot to not worry about anything other than putting the ball in the basket, which she has an uncanny ability to do.
“Just really freeing her mind up. I think she was a little bogged down with us playing her at the point guard position for 40 minutes. So, this has been a change for the better.”
‘She makes us better’
Before UK’s lineup shakeup, Harlan County native Blair Green started all 18 of the Wildcats’ games. She has come off the bench for the last two games and her numbers have dipped dramatically.
The junior guard averaged 24.2 minutes and 7.6 points per game in UK’s first 18 outings. Against Tennessee, Green played 14 minutes and scored three points. Against Florida, she scored two points in eight minutes.
But Elzy believes Green still has an important role to play.
“We have the most talent that we’ve had at Kentucky in a long time. And we talked about it before the season, everybody can’t start … We have to be able to buy into our team roles in order to achieve success,” Elzy said. ”This was one of the toughest decisions that I’ve had to make. With that said, Blair and I met. I need Blair, even if she’s coming off the bench. I need her to score, she’s going to play minutes. She makes us better.
“We need her to come in and make plays. She’s just coming off the bench right now.”
Sunday
No. 17 Kentucky at No. 2 South Carolina
When: 3 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
Records: UK 15-5 (8-4 SEC); South Carolina 17-3 (12-1 SEC)
Series: South Carolina leads 25-15
Last meeting: South Carolina won 75-70 on Jan. 10 in Memorial Coliseum
This story was originally published February 20, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
