‘We don’t hate losing enough.’ Kentucky women’s basketball drops third in a row.

Kentucky Coach Kyra Elzy and her players came into Sunday afternoon’s home game against Florida Gulf Coast hoping to end a trend of slow starts. That didn’t happen.

The Eagles (9-2) jumped out to an 8-0 lead before the Cats (7-4) were able to get on the board with a basket by Blair Green with 7:57 to go in the first quarter. UK, which committed three turnovers in the first 70 seconds, did fight back and eventually take a brief lead in the second half. But Florida Gulf Coast hit seven of its eight free throws late to finish off the Cats, 69-63.

It was Kentucky’s third straight loss — after defeats to Louisville and Murray State — since starting the season 7-1.

“Well, definitely not our intention to go in the game starting slow,” Elzy said afterward. “We would love to get off to a quick start. I do think sometimes what happens offensively does affect us. Whether we miss an outside shot or a layup, which is deflating since we hadn’t been shooting the ball well. So sometimes I think we’re playing in rewind instead of fast forward. Then it shows on the defensive side where we’re not mentally locked in because we’re still thinking about the layup or the open shot that we’ve missed.

“We’re going to have to get off to better starts. The staff and I will have to go back and reevaluate. What are some things we can do to help the team in that area?”

Robyn Benton, the team’s leading scorer, paced the Cats with 18 points, including making all nine of her free throws. But she was 4-for-18 from the field, including 1-for-7 from long range.

Jada Walker, who had been in a bit of a slump, scored 10 of her 14 points in the first half and was 8-for-10 from the free-throw line while also contributing five rebounds and two assists to go with six of her team’s 20 turnovers.

UK’s leading rebounder was Maddie Scherr with nine, but she was 1-for-10 from the field and finished with six points while also getting three steals, two assists and two blocked shots.

“I think the way we came out was way too slow,” Scherr said. “I think it was an 8-0 run and we weren’t ready and that starts with our mindset coming out on the floor. It’s definitely unacceptable. I think (FGCU) scoring 32 points on our turnovers lost us the game right there, too. We have to take better care of the ball and playing like every possession matters.”

Florida Gulf Coast (9-2) was up 18-12 at the first break. The teams played even in the second quarter with the Eagles up 37-31 at halftime.

UK picked it up in the third quarter, taking its first lead of the game at 40-39 on a jump shot by Green. The Cats fell behind 51-44 before another surge had them going into the fourth quarter down 51-49.

Kentucky managed to tie it a 53 apiece, while Florida Gulf Coast attempted to take control with a run of seven straight points that made it 62-55 with 1:44 to play.

UK answered with a Nyah Leveretter layup, a Scherr steal and a pair of Benton free throws that made it 62-59 at the 1:08 mark.

But the Eagles were able to ice the game at the free-throw line, where they were 15-for-19 for the game.

“I just want to win,” Scherr said. “I know I shot terrible from the field today and I was aware of that, but I want to win. That means doing everything else for my team, even if I’m not hitting shots. It’s just a mindset and I think, as a team, we don’t hate losing enough.”

Asked about Scherr’s comment about the team not hating losing enough, Elzy’s response was, “I agree with Maddie because we’re losing. So, obviously we don’t hate it enough because we haven’t figured out how to win yet. So, I back her in that statement and I actually love it. That’s a competitor. We hate to lose. You know, this program is built around winning and that is the standard. That is the expectation and that’s never going to change.”

Florida Gulf Coast came into the game off a 71-48 home loss to Duke. Sha Carter was one of four Eagles in double figures in scoring, leading the way with 16.

Coming up

Kentucky will wrap up non-conference play with one more game before Christmas. The Wildcats will take on Ohio University (2-7) in Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday. The Bobcats, who lost 67-55 at home to Chattanooga on Sunday, have one Kentuckian on their roster: Jaya McClure, a 5-6 freshman guard out of Christian Academy-Louisville.

Kentucky tips off Southeastern Conference play Dec. 29 at Missouri, then hosts No. 21 Arkansas on New Year’s Day.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Elzy said. “We have one more (non-conference) game and that’s the most important game on our schedule to try to focus on. We can’t bury our head in the sand. We have got to find a way to go back, go to work and find a way to get a win and get back on the winning side of things.”

Next game

Ohio at Kentucky

When: 11 a.m. Wednesday

TV: SEC Network Plus (online only)

This story was originally published December 18, 2022 at 3:22 PM.