Kentucky women’s basketball sets new date for SEC game postponed because of COVID
After the first two Southeastern Conference games of the season for the Kentucky women’s basketball team were postponed, rescheduled dates are beginning to fall into place.
Kentucky was supposed to play Mississippi State on Monday night in Memorial Coliseum, but COVID-19 problems in the UK program caused the game to be postponed.
UK and Mississippi State will now play at 7 p.m. on Jan. 13 in Lexington. It will be the only regular-season game between the two schools this season.
The game will be streamed on SEC Network+. Tickets for the Jan. 3 game will also be valid for Jan. 13.
The contest will pit two of the best players in the SEC against each other in UK star senior guard Rhyne Howard and MSU junior forward Rickea Jackson.
Howard has been named the SEC Player of the Year by league coaches in each of the last two seasons and is averaging 18.7 points and 6.5 rebounds per game for UK this season.
Jackson is the SEC’s leading scorer at 20.7 points per game, a full two points per game better than Howard.
Kentucky is 7-3 overall and was ranked No. 21 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll released Monday.
UK is one of three SEC schools (along with Ole Miss and Vanderbilt) yet to play a conference game.
Mississippi State is 9-4 overall and 0-1 in SEC play under interim head coach Doug Novak.
Novak was hired as an assistant coach in September and abruptly became the interim head coach at Mississippi State less than one month before the season started after former head coach Nikki McCray-Penson left her post after just one season to focus on her health.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Mississippi State was the worst three-point shooting team in the SEC (26.4%) and the second-worst free-throw shooting team in the SEC (60.5%).
The rescheduled date for the MSU game means that Kentucky’s upcoming games look like this:
▪ vs. No. 15 Georgia at 7 p.m. on Thursday
▪ at No. 1 South Carolina at 1 p.m. on Sunday
▪ vs. Mississippi State at 7 p.m. on Jan. 13
▪ at No. 7 Tennessee at 3 p.m. on Jan. 16
A new date has not yet been announced for Kentucky’s game at Auburn, which was scheduled to open SEC play for both schools on Dec. 30, but was postponed due to COVID-19 in the Auburn program.
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 2:01 PM.
