UK women’s basketball fails to contain the interior, suffers lopsided loss to U of L
For a sixth straight time, the Louisville women’s basketball team has defeated Kentucky.
But while most of U of L’s victories during this winning streak have come by close margins, this most recent triumph for Louisville was anything but.
The Cardinals led wire-to-wire on Sunday afternoon inside Rupp Arena during an 86-72 victory for the visitors.
Louisville led by seven after the first quarter and by 17 at halftime.
“I thought (Louisville) came in, played really hard. For us, it just took us a minute to get settled into the physical play,” Kentucky head coach Kyra Elzy said. “It took us too long to get settled in.”
Louisville (7-4) won this game in the interior, with the following dominant advantages over Kentucky (7-2):
▪ 44-35 rebounding advantage.
▪ 33-10 made free throws advantage.
▪ 8-3 blocks advantage.
“We thought we had the advantage in the post,” Louisville head coach Jeff Walz said. “We really tried early and often to get it in there, but we weren’t trying to force it.”
Kentucky has not beaten Louisville since December 2015.
The Cats still lead the all-time series over the Cards, 34-24.
Sunday’s game represented UK’s heaviest home defeat for a game played in Rupp Arena since January 2018.
Since the 2017-18 season, UK has played at least two marquee games in the venue each year.
Louisville’s interior presence affects UK on both ends
U of L established a big first-half lead on Sunday based on its interior play, and it propelled the Cardinals to a sizable road victory.
Graduate student forward Liz Dixon (16 points and three rebounds) and junior forward Olivia Cochran (nine points and nine rebounds) dominated around the rim for the visiting team.
Also having success was graduate student guard Morgan Jones with 12 points, eight rebounds and four blocks.
The success enjoyed by Louisville in the paint was more than enough to overcome a 1-for-15 three-point shooting showing from the Cardinals.
“I can’t remember when we were 1 of 15 from three and still won a basketball game,” Walz said.
Louisville’s length caused disruptions for Kentucky at both ends of the court and affected the Wildcats’ game flow.
A prime example of this came in the free-throw shooting disparity featured in Sunday’s game.
Louisville made 33 of 39 attempts from the foul line, while UK went 10 for 21 from the charity stripe.
UK guards Maddie Scherr and Jada Walker both fouled out of the game.
“Just being more disciplined defensively,” Elzy said of what UK needs to do given the free-throw disparity.
Drives to the rim from Walker — a sophomore guard and UK’s leading scorer — and others often resulted in blocked shots or low-percentage opportunities, which U of L then turned into rebounds.
UK junior forward Ajae Petty — an offseason transfer from LSU — entered Sunday’s game having recorded two consecutive double-doubles, but she was unable to get in a rhythm against the Cardinals.
Foul trouble also plagued Petty, who finished with 11 points and six rebounds, the vast majority of which came in the fourth quarter.
Leading scorer struggles for Kentucky
The aforementioned Walker, like Petty, also battled foul trouble against Louisville and had her offensive presence almost completely negated.
Walker — who entered the game averaging more than 15 points per contest — scored just three points against Louisville on 1-for-8 shooting from the field.
The Cats were led in scoring by graduate student guard Robyn Benton, who had a season-high 20 points.
Benton — who has now scored 20 or more points three times in her career — is the only UK player to score in double figures in all nine games this season.
Scherr — an offseason transfer from Oregon and a former Miss Kentucky Basketball — set a new career high with 18 points. She also recorded six assists, five rebounds and two blocks.
After the game, Scherr struck a dejected tone when discussing UK’s defeat to its rival.
“It just sucks period, honestly,” Scherr said. “You never want to lose any game, but especially losing to Louisville, it just sucks.”
While the success enjoyed near the rim and in the paint by Louisville was enough to give the visitors the win, U of L’s most potent scoring threat also made an impact.
Junior guard Hailey Van Lith — who has totaled more than 1,000 points in her college career and entered Sunday’s game averaging 20.0 points per game this season — had 21 points, with 15 of those points coming in the second half.
Defensively, Kentucky forced 16 Louisville turnovers, a mark that is significantly lower than the 25 turnovers forced per game that UK averaged before Sunday’s game.
Former coach and player meet on the sideline again
In addition to the familiarity that comes with a rivalry matchup like UK against U of L, there’s an added level of common knowledge when the Wildcats and Cardinals meet in a women’s basketball game.
Walz coached Elzy at the AAU level.
Postgame on Sunday, both Walz and Elzy reflected on their basketball journeys from then until now.
“She is a good person,” Walz said of Elzy. “In this profession, you can hang your hat on that, when someone is a good person ... I’ve got the utmost respect for her because how she does things and who she is.”
“I love Coach Walz, (but) I don’t love Coach Walz when we’re playing,” Elzy added.
During her postgame press conference, Elzy was also asked about the future of the Kentucky-Louisville game in the context of the SEC/ACC Challenge, which is set to start next season.
“It’s here to stay,” Elzy said of the UK-U of L game. “It’s a great game for the state of Kentucky. The fans love to see it. We love to play in it. We’ll be right back at it again this time next year.”
Next game
Murray State at Kentucky
When: 7 p.m. Friday
TV: SEC Network
Records: Kentucky 7-2, Murray State 5-1
Series: Kentucky leads 15-0
This story was originally published December 11, 2022 at 3:27 PM.
