UK women use days off to turn it on. Crisp-looking Cats 6-1 after rout of UNC Greensboro.

Kyra Elzy has never been one to let idle time go to waste, so when her University of Kentucky women’s basketball team received 10 days “off” after its Thanksgiving week trip to the Bahamas, the Wildcats’ head coach made good use of her time.

Looking well-rested, crisp offensively and sharp defensively in its full-court press, Kentucky made quick work of visiting North Carolina-Greensboro in Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, dispatching the Spartans 82-56 in a game that tipped off at the same time as their male counterparts were taking on Michigan in London, England.

Jada Walker led eight Wildcats in the scoring column on Sunday with 20 points. Robyn Benton finished with 14, and the Wildcats received a surprise contribution of nine points and four rebounds off the bench from freshman Kennedy Cambridge, making her season debut.

Kentucky (6-1) took care of business right from the jump, making nine of its first 11 shots from the field including both of its three-point attempts, and bolted to a 27-15 lead after one quarter. As tight as the Wildcats looked offensively, the scoring was being driven by defense. UK forced 16 first-half turnovers, which generated 20 of the Cats’ first-half points on the way to a 48-21 lead at the break.

“That is an everyday thing. We push the pace,” Walker said of the Wildcats’ practice regimen. “We do a lot of drills where we had to get the rebound and run. If we don’t, we have to run as a consequence. So, just preaching that every day in practice and it’s making it easier in games for us to just get them down, push and beat teams and then forcing them to just cough the ball up, speeding them up, instead of the other way around.”

Walker, UK’s second-leading scorer this season at 14.0 points per game entering Sunday, matched that output by halftime while also distributing four assists. Kentucky received a first-half boost off the bench from Cambridge, who scored six points in her first seven minutes of game action in 2022.

“Well, Kennedy makes us different,” Elzy said of Cambridge. “She knows how to win and she understands her role. She’s in there to make custom plays, defend, rebound and score garbage buckets, and she does her role and she does it well. But at the end of the day, she has the dog mentality that we need. She is aggressive and she understands the assignment when she steps on the floor.”

Despite Kentucky’s first-half domination, Elzy expected the Wildcats to keep the pedal pressed firmly to the floor. When UNC Greensboro outscored UK 6-5 to open the second half, the UK coach called a timeout and lit into her troops.

Out of the timeout, UK worked the ball into 6-foot-3 LSU transfer Ajae Petty, who spun right into the paint, then drop-stepped for a layup and a 55-21 lead. Kentucky remained in command, 68-39, after three quarters and spent the fourth quarter giving a few of its six freshmen some minutes to work on their games.

Petty worked her physical game to perfection in the second half, winding up with a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds. Her game-high 12 rebounds led the Wildcats to a 38-34 advantage on the glass.

“I think it just showed what I can do,” Petty said. “I already know what I can do, so I think it’s just finally putting the pieces together and trying to show my team that they can rely on me to do the job that they brought me here to do.”

Kentucky wound up forcing 24 turnovers and scoring 29 points off those miscues. The Wildcats limited UNC Greensboro (4-4) to 23-for-67 shooting from the field (34.3 percent), including 4 of 14 from three-point range (28.6 percent).

UK, meanwhile, finished 32-for-55 from the field (58.2 percent) and 4-for-14 from beyond the arc (28.6 percent). The Cats, who were shooting 68.6 percent from the free-throw line this season entering the game, made only 14 of 24 attempts on Sunday (58.3 percent).

“I was so proud of us, 58.0 percent from the field,” Elzy said of UK’s best shooting performance this season. “You know, I think our ability to share the basketball, push in transition. I think we’re taking rhythm shots, sharing the basketball. It is great to see the ball go in the net, but 82 points on the board, we’ll take it.”

Kentucky will put its 6-1 start — built largely off mid-major competition — to the test this week when it plays back-to-back games against major conference opponents. The Wildcats visit Minnesota (5-3) of the Big Ten on Wednesday night in the team’s first true road game this season. Next Sunday, UK hosts archrival Louisville (5-3) in Rupp Arena. The 18th-ranked Cardinals have won their past five meetings with the Wildcats.

Next game

Kentucky at Minnesota

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday

TV: Big Ten Network Plus (online only)

Radio: WLAP-AM 630

Records: Kentucky 6-1, Minnesota 5-3

Series: Minnesota leads 1-0

Last meeting: Minnesota won 92-80 on Nov. 23, 2007, at the Rainbow Wahine Classic in Honolulu, Hawaii

This story was originally published December 4, 2022 at 3:04 PM.