Undersized and undermanned: Kentucky falls victim to season sweep against Georgia

Kentucky’s starting five looked quite different, but the result was much the same Thursday night.

In the absence of injured starting guards and major contributors Robyn Benton and Maddie Scherr, the UK coaching staff was forced to regroup and find a new combination to tackle the Georgia Bulldogs in a rematch of Kentucky’s tight 64-60 loss on Jan. 5 at Stegeman Coliseum.

The game was similarly close the second time around in Memorial Coliseum, this time resulting in a 50-40 win for the Bulldogs, who held Kentucky to its lowest scoring output of the season.

With three games remaining, UK (10-15, 2-11 SEC) is now unable to avoid a losing record in the regular season for the first time since 2017-18. Both Benton (ankle) and Scherr (illness) are considered day-to-day.

“I talked to the team before so they knew that those two would not take the floor,” UK head coach Kyra Elzy said. “Wanted to give them time to set their mind, process it. Because that’s a big blow when two of your top players are going to be out. But, we always talk about opportunity. Opportunity awaits. Be ready when your number is called. So these type of moments happen, that you can deliver and step up, and I thought we did have some people step up.”

UK veterans Blair Green, Jada Walker, Nyah Leveretter, transfer post Adebola Adeyeye and impressive freshman Kennedy Cambridge took the floor first for the Wildcats. And quite the defensive start it was.

The Wildcats held UGA to 36 percent shooting on 10-of-28 from the field in the first half, including 0-of-3 from beyond the arc. The first two periods alone saw eight lead changes before Georgia took a 21-16 lead into the locker room.

Kentucky’s hustle and harassment defensively was essential Thursday night with two of its top three scorers this season sidelined. Again victimized by a larger opponent, Kentucky committed 12 first-half turnovers as the Bulldogs racked up five blocks, five steals and limited the Cats to 6-for-23 shooting in the opening two quarters.

As a result of the absence of two of its stars, UK needed minutes from several faces who don’t often get substantial run. Transfers Ajae Petty and Eniya Russell, as well as freshmen Amiya Jenkins and Cassidy Rowe provided fans a glimpse of what a possible future for this team could look like.

“Honestly, it was pretty great,” Jenkins said of the younger players’ increase in opportunity. “Because we all want the same end goal. And for all of us to fight together and get a chance to put toward that goal just feeds into us as a team.”

But the prevalence of inexperience also brought frustrations.

Elzy could be seen throughout the night encouraging her team to slow down and stay calm. A team that typically tries to capitalize in transition was forced to ease its pace so as not to get ahead of itself.

However, that proved to be a tall order.

The Wildcats, who entered Thursday’s game ranked first in the conference and 13th nationally in turnovers forced per game (21.1) and second in the league in turnover margin (3.88), had difficulty holding onto the ball.

The Bulldogs forced 22 turnovers, while only committing 12.

By the time the final buzzer sounded, UGA (18-9, 7-6 SEC) totaled 10 steals and seven blocks.

Despite all that was stacked against them, the shorthanded and undersized Wildcats stayed competitive through two-and-a-half quarters. In the back half of the third period, the Bulldogs went on a 12-2 run over a 5:18 span.

The Wildcats endured several minutes-long scoring droughts, including two lasting more than five minutes each. The game seemed all but over following the third period, in which the Wildcats did not score over the final 6:49, landing only one of its last 10 attempts from the field.

“We’re better shooters than what we are showing,” Elzy said. “I think some of it’s just mental. We miss a few and then we hang on to every shot like, ‘Oh, that one didn’t go in, the next one.’ So, trying to teach them to play in fast-forward instead of rewind. You miss one, let’s try now to get the second one or the third one. Let’s try to stay positive, see the ball go in.”

The Wildcats rallied in the fourth quarter behind a combined offensive effort from Adeyeye, Green, Jenkins and Walker. Thanks to a 13-2 run, the Wildcats pulled within as close as four. And though the Wildcats outscored Georgia 17-12 in the fourth quarter, it wasn’t enough to overcome the hole UK dug itself.

“Our mentality was ‘one stop, one score. One stop, one score,’” Adeyeye said of the fourth quarter run. “And those stops led to us scoring. And not really focusing on our offense, but focusing on defense — which gave us momentum and synergy to then compete on offense and just really attack, attack, attack and give it our all.”

A jumper by Green in the lane with 34 seconds left trimmed Georgia’s lead to 44-40 and helped the Wildcats avoid the ignominy of matching the program’s all-time scoring low of 38 points, achieved most recently in 2013. Kentucky shot 14-of-50 from the field on the night for 28 percent.

Where UK did see improvement was in the paint. For the first time in SEC play this season, the post group accomplished its goal of combining for at least 12 points and 15 rebounds. Against Georgia, Adeyeye, Leveretter and Petty combined for 17 points and 21 boards.

“It feels like an ‘ah-ha’ moment,” Adeyeye said. “Just because this is something that we’re working so hard toward, I know our team counts on us as the posts being the foundation to really go in there, rebound, box out, score on dump passes. Being able to accomplish that, we just want to be able to use that momentum to go forward into our next games and use that confidence, that momentum that we’re building up to having success in these next couple of games.”

Green led the Wildcats with 12 points. Adeyeye contributed a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Georgia’s Alisha Lewis led all scorers with 13 points.

“We’re going to continue to fight, learn, grow,” Elzy said. “And there’s pride in this program. Obviously, the expectation is winning, which we are not doing now. But there’s no quit. We gotta continue to fight, we gotta press on and find a way to continue to scrap and see if we can get to the other side.”

Next game

Kentucky at Vanderbilt

When: 3 p.m. EST Sunday

TV: SEC Network Plus (online only)

Radio: WLAP-AM 630

Records: Vanderbilt 11-16 (2-11 SEC), Kentucky 10-15 (2-11 SEC)

Series: Vanderbilt leads 31-27

Last meeting: Kentucky won 69-65 on Feb. 17, 2022, in Lexington

This story was originally published February 16, 2023 at 9:50 PM.