Three takeaways from Kentucky’s fifth straight women’s basketball victory
Dre’una Edwards has answered the call.
Edwards returned from her second team-imposed suspension in late January and has been an integral part of UK’s wins and losses ever since, and on Thursday night she was of vital importance to one of the biggest wins of the season.
A career-high 30 points from Edwards, along with 10 rebounds, paired well with 19 points and 12 rebounds from star senior guard Rhyne Howard as Kentucky won its fifth straight game, 78-63, at Missouri, which is a projected NCAA Tournament team.
Kyra Elzy’s team led wire-to-wire in the win, although a 17-point first-quarter lead shrunk to as little as one point.
But UK got over the line, and now the NCAA Tournament — once a distant thought — is plainly in front of the Wildcats with one regular-season game and the Southeastern Conference Tournament to go.
Kentucky’s current five-game SEC winning streak is the longest for the team in league play under Elzy.
Kentucky 78, Missouri 63
The star: Dre’una Edwards produced video game-like numbers with 30 points and 10 rebounds for UK.
The stats: Joining Edwards as a double-digit scorer for UK was Howard with 19 points. Both players recorded double-doubles in the UK victory.
Edwards and Howard also recorded double-doubles in Sunday’s win at Arkansas. This is the first time UK players have recorded consecutive double-doubles since Victoria Dunlap and Eleia Roddy in the 2008-09 season.
The status: Kentucky is 14-11 overall and 7-8 in the SEC. Missouri is 17-11 overall and 6-9 in the SEC.
Three takeaways
1. DRE’UNA EDWARDS SCORES A CAREER-HIGH 30 POINTS.
When Kentucky needed her most, Edwards delivered.
It feels like an eternity ago that Edwards was serving her second team-imposed suspension of the season and the Wildcats were sputtering, stuck in a stretch of losing eight of nine games.
But since Edwards returned on Jan. 30 at LSU, she’s been on an absolute tear for UK.
“I thought Dre’s been steady for us, her ability to score inside and out it really takes some pressure off Rhyne on the perimeter,” Elzy said. “When we can play inside out and move the ball, that makes our offense better.”
Edwards entered Thursday’s game averaging more than 15 points and eight rebounds per game since her return, and those already gaudy numbers were boosted by a career night in Columbia, Missouri.
Edwards scored a career-high 30 points against the Tigers, shooting 14-for-19 from the field while coming down with 10 rebounds.
“They said they were going to give me the ball,” Edwards said of UK’s halftime discussion. “They kept feeding it to me so I had to hit the shots.”
The 30 points scored by Edwards were the most points scored by a UK player since Howard had 30 points in a home win over Georgia in early January.
One of the main reasons for Edwards’ sustained elite performance, according to Elzy, is the commitment Edwards showed to getting in better shape last offseason.
“If I didn’t work as hard in the summer, I probably wouldn’t be as in-shape as I am now,” Edwards said. “Everything just correlates and me getting my body right and staying focused during the summer, that just brought a locked in mentality all the way.”
Edwards’ performance, combined with Howard’s double-double, provided enough for UK to pull away late against a scrappy, but shorthanded Missouri team.
2. FOR A CHANGE, IT WAS UK’S OPPONENT THAT WAS SHORTHANDED.
Plenty of times this season due to injuries and suspensions, Kentucky has found itself shorthanded in important SEC games.
On Thursday night, it was finally time for UK to benefit from another team having players unavailable.
Missouri held four players out of Thursday’s game — including standout junior guard Aijha Blackwell — because of not meeting program standards, according to the SEC Network Plus broadcast of the game.
Blackwell, who led the SEC in rebounds per game (13.3), was fifth in the conference in field goal percentage (48.9%) and led Missouri in scoring (15.3 points per game) entering Thursday’s game, was also likely to draw the defensive assignment against UK’s Howard.
Both Kentucky and Howard wasted no time in taking advantage of this good fortune.
UK opened up a first-quarter lead that was as large as 17 points. The Cats finished the opening quarter with a nine-point lead, although that lead was just four points at halftime and just one point entering the fourth quarter.
Howard had nine points, three assists and two steals in the opening period for Kentucky.
“Our goal was to set the tone defensively,” Elzy said. “Be aggressive in transition and hunt paint points and I was proud of our start.”
As part of this first quarter scoring barrage, Howard passed Dan Issel on the all-time Kentucky basketball scoring list (men’s or women’s).
Howard finished Thursday’s game with 19 points, giving her 2,153 points for her UK career.
The top of the combined scoring list for Kentucky’s basketball programs currently looks like this:
Valerie Still (2,763), Rhyne Howard (2,153), Dan Issel (2,138).
“Her career at Kentucky just speaks for itself,” Elzy said of Howard. “She’s a phenomenal player, she’s worked really hard. She has been phenomenal for our program, for women’s basketball and everything that she is achieving she’s worked for.”
3. THURSDAY WAS A CRITICAL DAY FOR BOTH UK’S AND MISSOURI’S NCAA TOURNAMENT HOPES.
Entering Thursday’s games, Kentucky was projected by ESPN’s Charlie Creme to be just outside of the NCAA Tournament, while Missouri was projected to be a 10-seed in the bracket.
As March, and next week’s SEC Tournament looms though, plenty can change, and a lot may have to do with the result of Thursday’s game.
Mizzou and UK entered their meeting with the exact same conference record, and similar NCAA Tournament résumés that each featured a couple quality wins and a few too many losses against quality opponents.
A potential determining factor in how the NCAA Tournament committee views teams when the time comes?
Direct head-to-head results against other teams battling to make the tournament.
Missouri was shorthanded Thursday night, but Kentucky took full advantage of it and scored a signature win in the process.
“Our focus is our team and what we need to do to achieve the goals that we’ve set for ourselves,” Elzy said. “Good or bad, we shouldn’t be listening to anyone outside of our locker room.”
If UK takes care of business Sunday at home against Auburn and wins at least one game in the SEC Tournament, it would be really hard to leave the Cats out of the NCAA Tournament.
What has Elzy learned about her team, and what have her players shown her, during this five-game winning streak?
“Toughness. A resiliency, the ability to play together through the good and bad,” Elzy said.
“It shows that we’re dogs and we don’t lay down regardless of the situation,” Edwards said, adding that confidence has been a common theme during the winning streak. “A lot of teams would end up just laying down when they’re on a losing streak and things like that. But we keep going and we keep fighting.”
Up next
Kentucky’s final regular-season game will be Sunday afternoon at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington against Auburn. The game is being promoted by UK as Rhyne Howard Day, as it may be the final time Howard — one of the top projected WNBA draft picks — plays in Lexington for UK.
The Cats and Tigers already played once this season, with UK winning 67-55 at Auburn on Jan. 25. Howard scored 17 fourth-quarter points to power a shorthanded Kentucky team to victory. Auburn is 10-16 overall this season and 2-13 in SEC play, sitting at the bottom of the conference standings. Auburn lost 72-52 at home against Ole Miss on Thursday night.
Sunday
Auburn at Kentucky
When: 4 p.m.
TV: SEC Network
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 10:10 PM.
