Three takeaways from Kentucky’s women’s basketball win against Vanderbilt
The Kentucky Wildcats have momentum.
For the first time since early December and for the first time in Southeastern Conference play this season, the Cats have won three games in a row after a 69-65 home victory Thursday night against Vanderbilt.
Junior forward Dre’una Edwards was huge in the second half for Kentucky, scoring 18 points in the final 20 minutes as UK surged ahead for good in the third quarter.
Star senior guard Rhyne Howard had 17 points and senior point guard Jazmine Massengill recorded nine assists in the four-point Kentucky win.
The last time Kentucky played Vanderbilt in a late January road loss, UK only had six scholarship players available and six players total who played in the game.
How different do things feel now with a full roster of nine scholarship players and the momentum of recent wins?
“It’s definitely a different feel, getting more rest, getting more reps and everything,” Massengill said. “It’s definitely way better than just playing with six people.”
“We’re a different team (now),” Kentucky head coach Kyra Elzy said. “That was a time that we were struggling, and they made us pay for it. But I thought we went and watched the film, and some adjustments we had to make we made today and it paid off for us.”
UK has only three more regular-season games, and only one more home game, before the SEC Tournament in March in Nashville.
Kentucky 69, Vanderbilt 65
The star: Dre’una Edwards scored 18 of her 20 points in the second half to lead UK. Edwards, who used to be a regular starter for the Cats, has come off the bench in six straight games for UK since returning from her second team-imposed suspension of the season.
The stats: Also in double figures for the Wildcats were Rhyne Howard with 17 points, Jada Walker with 11 and Jazmine Massengill with 10.
The status: Kentucky is now 12-11 overall and 5-8 in the SEC. Vanderbilt is 12-15 overall and 3-10 in the SEC.
Three takeaways
1. TURNOVERS PLAGUED UK EARLY, THEN THE CATS FLIPPED IT AROUND.
Turnovers were the story as Kentucky trailed Vanderbilt for most of the first half.
UK committed eight turnovers on its first 14 offensive possessions as comparisons were quickly drawn to the first meeting between the when UK committed 25 turnovers in a road loss.
“Early, I thought we were casual with the basketball,” Elzy said. “We had talked in shootaround that we had to make hard flashes to the middle, meet the pass. I thought we were taking it up the sideline and that’s an easy place to get trapped right across halfcourt, which is just a danger spot.”
But after early struggles handling the ball and passing out of Vanderbilt’s pressure defense, the Cats became more ball secure and got the ball from the sidelines to the middle of the floor.
In the remaining three quarters, UK committed just 10 turnovers to finish with 18 turnovers for the game.
“Just slowing down and realizing that if two people are on you that somebody’s open,” Massengill said of the adjustments made by UK after the first quarter. “Flashing to the ball, making the extra pass and being more aggressive.”
Conversely, as Kentucky took better care of the ball, the UK defense turned the heat up on Vanderbilt.
In a third quarter that UK won, 16-9, and gave the Cats the lead for good, Kentucky forced six Vanderbilt turnovers.
Vanderbilt finished the game with 18 turnovers, and the points off turnovers battle finished tied at 21.
2. JAZMINE MASSENGILL REDISCOVERS FORM AS UK’S POINT GUARD.
In recent weeks, Elzy has admitted that she’s been hard on Massengill, UK’s senior point guard.
After Sunday’s win at Alabama, Elzy said that Massengill “has not been happy with me” after Elzy challenged Massengill in practice leading up to the game.
Then, Elzy praised Massengill for answering the call, communicating on the court, playing hard defensively and getting UK into good offensive sets.
After Tuesday’s home win over Mississippi State, Elzy again said that she challenged Massengill to be better.
“I’ve been pretty hard on her the last couple weeks talking to her like, ‘You have more, we want more and we’re going to get more,’” Elzy said. “When she plays with a certain type of intensity on both sides of the basketball, we’re a different basketball team.”
Massengill delivered again for Elzy and the Cats on Thursday night, navigating Vanderbilt’s active pressure defense while only committing one turnover.
Massengill finished the win with 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting to go along with nine assists and five rebounds.
“It’s been a journey and it’s an ongoing progress, but I think she’s giving more,” Elzy said of Massengill. “We’ve asked her to step up and score, be involved in our offense and that makes the defense have to play us honest.”
The nine assists tied a season high for Massengill, who said she’s been more intentional on offense and defense in recent games.
“She’s definitely told me (that) I have more in me, so it kind of made me want to dig a little deeper, rise to the challenge,” Massengill said of conversations with Elzy. “Her being hard on me definitely made me grow and rise as a leader.”
Why did Elzy decide she could be hard on Massengill and get the desired result from her starting point guard?
“She’s a competitor, she wants to win, she’s going to step up to the challenge,” Elzy said. “No player likes it during the process, until they can start seeing results of what they’re trying to get done and I think she’s seeing success right now, so she’s in a good mind space.”
After being one of the top assist-to-turnover leaders in all of women’s college basketball to start the season, Massengill fell off as SEC play began.
She’s since regained her form. Massengill hasn’t had more turnovers than assists in a game since Jan. 20.
Prior to Thursday’s game, Massengill was ranked 31st in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio.
“It’s amazing when you’ve got a point guard that’s getting way more assists than turnovers. That’s a great aspect to have on the team,” Edwards said of Massengill.
3. FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE EARLY DECEMBER, UK HAS WON THREE STRAIGHT GAMES.
Kentucky continues to play some of its best basketball of the season as the regular season comes to a close, but it still might be too late to salvage the Cats’ NCAA Tournament hopes.
UK is now just one game above .500, still with a conference record that is three games below .500 and with a 2-9 mark this season against teams currently projected by ESPN’s Charlie Creme to reach the NCAA Tournament.
Part of this is bad timing, with UK’s front-loaded SEC schedule meaning that it was always going to be easier for the Cats to collect conference wins in the later stages of league play.
But part of this is also the required punishment for UK’s lack of quality non-conference wins and lack of wins against an SEC that is projected to send nine of its 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament.
The long-term outlook for UK remains the same as it did earlier this week: The Cats must do significant damage in the SEC Tournament in order to reach the NCAA Tournament.
Up next
Kentucky finishes a stretch of four games in eight days on Sunday afternoon with a road game at Arkansas. The Razorbacks are 16-9 overall and 6-6 in SEC play this season and lost at Florida on Thursday night. The last time UK visited Arkansas was in February 2020, when UK allowed 103 points in an 18-point loss.
Next game
Kentucky at Arkansas
When: 2 p.m. Sunday
TV: SEC Network
This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 9:19 PM.
