UK women hang on to defeat Arkansas 77-63

Sometimes when things aren’t going your way, you just have to look at them another way.

So even as his Kentucky team saw much of its once 20-point lead over Arkansas get cut, Coach Matthew Mitchell summoned his inner cheerleader.

“It was a very discouraging third quarter, but at the end of it, we were up nine points and I told them, ‘After three quarters you have earned a nine-point lead and let’s see if we can increase that in the fourth quarter,’” he said simply.

“We don’t need to be down and out because we struggled in that quarter.”

That pep talk and some key plays by Makayla Epps and others helped the No. 16 Cats hold off Arkansas to win their fourth straight game 77-63 on Sunday at Memorial Coliseum.

Epps had 10 of her 16 points in the second half and added seven rebounds, four assists and a steal for UK, which won its sixth straight over the Razorbacks (11-16, 6-8 Southeastern Conference).

The junior guard, who had to shoulder much of the load when senior Janee Thompson exited with a sprained ankle, saw shot after shot clank off the rim or pop in the basket and then back out again.

“Coach Mitchell kept telling me to shoot; my teammates kept telling me to shoot, so everybody has a lot of confidence in me regardless if I’m 6-for-19 or not,” said Epps, who had eight points and two assists in the fourth quarter. “It’s just a mental thing. I always tell myself I can’t miss them all.”

Epps had help in holding Arkansas back, including 14 points and 11 rebounds from junior forward Evelyn Akhator and 14 points from Alexis Jennings. Maci Morris added 10 points and three assists.

Without Thompson, Kentucky (19-6, 8-6) opted to go into the third quarter using a bigger lineup and a zone defense. Neither packed much punch against the Razorbacks, who hit 61.5 percent from the field in that span and cut the UK lead to seven twice.

“The game could’ve gotten real close in a hurry,” Arkansas Coach Jimmy Dykes said. “We were putting pressure on Kentucky three or four times and just couldn’t get one more play.”

Each time the Hogs would make what looked like the play that could push them forward, UK would grab a key offensive rebound. That was the biggest difference in the game, Dykes said of UK’s 37-24 rebounding advantage and its 15-2 advantage in second-chance points.

“We just had to rally around each other,” Epps said. “I told them, ‘Just keep playing. We’re still up. Even though we’re not playing the best right now we’re still up. They still have to catch us.’”

Kentucky had been through similar games earlier this season where they coughed up double-digit leads and didn’t have a good end result. Mitchell said he’s seen mental growth since then.

“We just tried to stay positive and finish the game,” he said. “I was really happy with the team and the way they responded in the fourth quarter and were able to get a crucial victory for us.”

The Hogs didn’t help themselves much in the first half, falling into a 20-point hole as Kentucky went on a monster 18-2 run to grab a 38-18 lead with five minutes to go in the first half. Thompson had six of her eight points in that spree.

The Cats led 44-26 at the break, and the 44 points were their most points in a first half in SEC play. They shot 54.3 percent from the field and held the Razorbacks to 35.7 percent, including 22.2 percent in the second quarter.

Thompson sprains right ankle again

Janee Thompson suffered a sprained right ankle, but it’s not clear if Kentucky’s lone senior will be able to play in her final regular-season game on Thursday at Memorial Coliseum.

“We don’t know anything definite right now but we are hoping that it will just be a sprain that she can recover from by Thursday,” Mitchell said. “I know she would love to play Thursday night for senior night.”

It’s the same ankle that Thompson had surgically repaired last season after a collision at South Carolina. She sprained the same ankle a few weeks ago, but had come back from that before rolling it again.

At halftime, the senior guard was able to run straight ahead and get into her jump shot on the practice court, but lateral movement was “just real painful and we didn’t want to injure her further,” Mitchell said of Thompson, who returned to the UK bench in the second half in her warm-up shirt and shoes.

She is second on the team in scoring at 12.2 points a game, including a team-best 43 three-pointers. The senior also leads UK in assists at 5.1 a game.

This story was originally published February 21, 2016 at 2:57 PM with the headline "UK women hang on to defeat Arkansas 77-63."