Familiar theme as UK women’s team dominated in paint in loss at South Carolina
Fans of the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team watched a bad rerun play out on Sunday.
The 17th-ranked Wildcats were again dominated down low by No. 2 South Carolina, falling to the Gamecocks 76-55 in Columbia, S.C.
In the January meeting between the teams in Lexington, South Carolina pounded UK on the boards and outscored them by a wide margin in the paint. Despite that, the Cats had a chance to win that one in the fourth quarter and lost by just five. Sunday’s rematch was far less competitive.
South Carolina (18-3 overall, 13-1 Southeastern Conference) outrebounded UK 49-30 and had 20 offensive rebounds that led to 18 second-chance points. Even when Kentucky (15-6, 8-5 SEC) boxed out effectively, Carolina was often able to use its superior length to out-leap defenders and snatch away boards without fouling.
After leading by four at halftime, South Carolina outscored Kentucky 42-25 the rest of the way. The Gamecocks pulled ahead by 20 with a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter. They held Kentucky without a field goal for more than nine minutes in the final period.
“(In) the third quarter, it got away from us,” UK Coach Kyra Elzy said during a postgame teleconference. “Overall we just did not have the toughness that we needed to rebound. We did it in spurts but not consistently enough. You can’t do that against a South Carolina, which is a very talented team … At the end of the day, we just did not get the job done.”
The Gamecocks scored 46 points in the paint to 20 for the Wildcats and had 16 points off 12 UK turnovers. Carolina hit 16 of 24 free throws while the Cats went 10-for-11 from the line.
Zia Cooke scored a game-high 21 points in the win. Laeticia Amihere had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Rhyne Howard led the Wildcats with 12 points but hit just two of 11 shots from the field. She went 2-for-8 from long range, moving up to No. 3 on UK’s all-time three-point list. She also entered the top 10 of the program’s all-time scoring list. Chasity Patterson had nine points and two assists while Jazmine Massengill and Dre’una Edwards scored six apiece.
South Carolina celebrated Senior Day before the game, with guard LeLe Grissett the lone honoree for the young Gamecocks. Grissett started and scored 13 points on 5-for-11 shooting and had six rebounds.
“It seems like just yesterday I was a freshman,” Grissett said. “It’s like they say, once you turn around four years go by fast. I didn’t want to listen to people when they told me back then. How are four years going to go by fast when high school took forever? But it flew.”
Both teams came out cold. South Carolina missed its first seven shots and Kentucky came up short on its first four. Patterson scored seven points in the first quarter. Her late jumper pulled the Cats within 14-12 heading into the second quarter.
Foul trouble quickly plagued Kentucky. Howard went to the bench early in the second quarter with two fouls and zero points. Edwards and KeKe McKinney also picked up their second fouls early in the second.
South Carolina used a 10-0 run to build a 24-15 lead and pulled ahead by 11 when Amihere put back a missed Gamecocks’ free throw.
Despite the lopsided numbers in the post, Kentucky pulled within 34-30 at halftime thanks to a 9-2 run. Howard scored her first points of the day on a contested three-pointer with 2:22 to go in the half and rattled home another three on the next possession. Massengill nailed a deep three-pointer at the buzzer and the Cats headed to the locker room with big-time momentum. It quickly faded following the intermission.
Incoming Cat honored
The highest ranked player so far in UK’s 2021 class earned a major distinction this week. Jada Walker — a four-star guard rated the No. 87 overall player in the country by ESPNW — was named a nominee for the 2021 McDonald’s All-American Game.
Although the game will not take place for the second straight year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 24 female players will be named to the team later this month and celebrated virtually.
During the Nike Nationals in 2019, ESPN.com described the 5-foot-7 Walker as a “confident game manager that executes in half-court game; left-handed playmaker knocks down jumpers with range to the arc; elusive off the dribble, penetrates and finds a way to the rim, takes contact and finishes plays, gets to the stripe; brings consistency, toughness to the back court; clock manager, basketball IQ.”
Walker — who chose Kentucky over Michigan, Arizona, N.C. State and Mississippi State — had a breakout junior season at Henrico High School in Virginia, averaging 26.3 points and 5.9 steals per game while shooting 54 percent from the field. Walker was named a Virginia High School League First-Team 5A All-State honoree.
As a sophomore at New Hope Academy in Landover Hills, Maryland, Walker helped her team defeat the top-two ranked teams in the nation at the Geico High School Basketball Nationals and was named MVP.
Next game
No. 17 Kentucky at No. 22 Georgia
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
This story was originally published February 21, 2021 at 5:27 PM.
