Feisty Murray State beats Kentucky for first time in women’s basketball

The University of Kentucky women’s basketball team has been able to mask its poor shooting and deficient rebounding with a suffocating defense during most of its first season without All-American Rhyne Howard.

On Friday night, Murray State unmasked the Wildcats.

The Racers outshot, outrebounded and out-defended Kentucky on its way to a convincing 51-44 victory in Memorial Coliseum.

The win was Murray State’s first over the Wildcats in 16 attempts dating to 1975 and its first victory over a Power Five school since the Racers beat TCU in 1988..

“Just an amazing win for this program,” Murray State Coach Rechelle Turner said. “A great feeling to know that you’ve been preaching to your kids all along, you can play with anybody if you have the grit and determination and the relentlessness you need to have for four quarters, and our kids did that tonight.”

After Jada Walker’s layup put Kentucky ahead 2-0, the Racers (6-2) never trailed again Friday night. They led 14-7 after one quarter, 25-20 at halftime and 35-28 after three quarters. The Wildcats (7-3) were unable to close the deficit any tighter than five points the entire second half, coming up empty on three opportunities to close within three in the fourth quarter.

“It’s something we’re going to have to fix,” UK Coach Kyra Elzy said of another sluggish start for the Cats. “We can’t just have a slow start every game. Whether I have to change up the lineup or what we’re doing, but we have to get off to a better start offensively and defensively.”

Fans are encouraged to come to Sunday’s UK game against Florida Gulf Coast wearing their ugliest holiday sweaters. The Wildcats got an early start on the festivities with one of their ugliest offensive showings in years Friday night.

UK’s 44 points was its lowest offensive output since a 56-42 loss to Georgia on Jan. 7, 2018 — and its lowest-scoring performance in Elzy’s three seasons as head coach. It was the first time Kentucky had scored less than 49 points in a game since a 55-49 loss to Ole Miss on Jan. 13, 2019.

“There’s an intensity that I’m looking for, a motor that I’m looking for that we just didn’t have,” Elzy said. “I thought we were flat-lining again. That’s on me and I’ll go back to work and get them ready.”

Kentucky was out of sorts right from the start against Murray State’s active 2-3 zone defense and never found the key to unlock Turner’s strategy.

UK started the game 1-for-9 from the field as the Racers bolted to a 9-2 lead. For the game, UK shot 20-for-60 from the field (33 percent), 2-for-17 from three-point range (11.8 percent) and 2-of-4 at the foul line (50 percent). Murray State outrebounded Kentucky 42-35.

“I think it starts with our intensity and coming out too relaxed,” Kentucky’s leading scorer, Robyn Benton, said of falling behind early. “It’s definitely fixable and we should see a change next game. We are going to emphasize that. As a team, we have to do better. This loss is unacceptable.”

Murray State’s shooting was similarly frosty but much more timely than Kentucky’s.

The Racers made 18 of 55 shots overall (32.7 percent) but cashed in five of 10 three-point attempts and 10 of 16 foul shots. More importantly, every time Kentucky tried to make a run at them, the visitors from the Missouri Valley Conference seemed to have an answer — either offensively or defensively.

“We never backed down,” Murray State’s Turner said. “We never really got rattled. The ability to take the lead and keep the lead and maintain it throughout the game was really special.”

Benton scored only three points in the first half but found her rhythm in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 of the Wildcats’ 16 points. Her jumper in the lane with 2:48 remaining trimmed Murray State’s lead to 45-40. The Cats then failed to score on three consecutive trips with a chance to make it a one-possession game.

“I’ve been scoring late in the past couple of games,” Benton said. “I need to try to get going more early in the game. We only had like 20 points at halftime and that’s not who we are.”

Murray State finally put the game out of reach. Macey Turley, who was 0-for-14 from the field, made a pair of clutch free throws with 58 seconds left to extend the Racers’ lead to 47-40, and that drained the life from Kentucky.

About that unmasking?

The Wildcats entered the game eighth in the Southeastern Conference in field goal percentage (44 percent), 14th and last in three-point shooting (26.3 percent), 11th in free-throw shooting (65.1 percent) and 12th in rebounding (37 per game).

Kentucky’s ace in the hole had been its ability to force turnovers with its pressing defense. However, the Racers looked prepared and undaunted Friday night, calmly finding the open player throughout the game and committing only 17 turnovers — the same number as Kentucky.

“Relentless pressure is what you’re going to get from a team like Kentucky,” Turner said. “We talked about rebounding the basketball and taking care of the basketball were the two main key points for us to have success. I thought we did a really good job. Our kids were very smart in how they attacked the pressure when it was there and how we pulled it back and ran offense when we needed to.”

Murray State outscored the Wildcats 11-9 in points off turnovers, another statistic UK has typically dominated this season.

Benton led the Wildcats with 15 points. Ajae Petty finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. There were few other bright spots for the Wildcats. Benton’s fellow starters Jada Walker, Blair Green, Nyah Leveretter and Maddie Scherr shot a combined 7-for-30 and combined for 15 points.

Kentucky is now 2-2 against in-state opponents this season, having beaten Morehead State and Bellarmine and lost to Louisville and Murray State.

Jordyn Hughes led Murray State with 15 points. Katelyn Young had 14 points and seven rebounds despite battling foul trouble.

For Turner, Murray State arrived in Memorial Coliseum with the right attitude to pull the upset.

“We told them, you can’t pay attention to the name on the front of the jersey,” the Racers head coach said. “You just have to understand that you’ve got to play 40 minutes of basketball regardless of what the opponent is. And we’re playing for the name on our jersey.”

Coming up

Kentucky will wrap up non-conference play with a pair of games before Christmas.

The Wildcats host Florida Gulf Coast (8-2) on Sunday, then take on Ohio University (2-6) in Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday.

Kentucky tips off Southeastern Conference play Dec. 29 at Missouri (11-1), then hosts No. 21 Arkansas (12-0 entering Saturday’s game at No. 16 Creighton) on New Year’s Day.

Sunday’s opponent, Florida Gulf Coast, is 3-0 on the road this season. The Eagles, who are averaging 73.8 points per game, have two players scoring in double figures in Alyza Winston (13.9) and Tishara Morehouse (13.8).

Sunday

Florida Gulf Coast at Kentucky

When: 1 p.m.

TV: SEC Network Plus (online only)

Radio: WLAP-AM 630

Records: Kentucky 7-3, Florida Gulf Coast 8-2

Series: Tied 1-1

Last meeting: Florida Gulf Coast won 70-64 on Dec. 8, 2017, at Fort Myers, Fla.

This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 9:54 PM.