UK women ‘physically whipped’ Texas A&M

Call it an inside job.

That’s what Kentucky’s regular-season finale turned out to be.

The No. 15 Cats won their sixth straight game, a 71-58 upset of No. 11 Texas A&M on Sunday, behind post players Evelyn Akhator and Alexis Jennings.

“I knew they were playing well, but when you go back and look at the stats, just unbelievable,” UK senior Janee Thompson said of Akhator’s 15 points and career-best 18 rebounds and Jennings’ 15 points and career-high 16 rebounds. “Those are pro-like numbers.”

The more astounding number to Texas A&M Coach Gary Blair was that UK’s two forwards combined for 34 rebounds, which was two more than his entire team had.

“I’ve never been that out-toughed before, not even when we played Connecticut here,” Blair said. “We just got physically whipped.”

He equated it to getting “manhandled like a 98-pound weakling on the beach. That’s what happened inside.”

Behind the duo, UK outrebounded the Aggies 57-32, allowing them to collect just five offensive boards to 19 for the Cats.

“As a player, rebounds are a part of our food,” Akhator said. “I call it our food. We don’t have any choice but to go to the boards.”

Kentucky’s feast helped them end the season on a six-game win streak, including wins over three ranked teams. Two of those were on the road, first at No. 14 Mississippi State and then Sunday at Texas A&M.

The Cats will go into this week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament in Jacksonville, Fla., as a No. 5 seed. They will face the winner of the Louisiana State-Alabama game, then potentially get a rematch with No. 4 seed Florida.

Early in Sunday’s game, it looked as if UK (21-6, 10-6 SEC) might limp into the conference tournament. Kentucky fell behind 10-1 early, missing its first seven shots and turning over the ball four times.

A 13-5 run to end the first quarter, keyed by Jennings and Makayla Epps, helped Kentucky get right back in it. Another big run, this time 11-2 early in the second quarter, helped give UK its first lead of the game.

“Alexis started getting hot in the post and so did Evelyn, so every timeout, I kept reiterating to the team, ‘They can’t guard us inside,’” said Epps, who had 14 points, four rebounds and four assists. “And they couldn’t run with us. We’re a really well-conditioned team, and the pace was a factor.”

It was back and forth from there, and UK went into the locker room with a 30-28 advantage.

Then Kentucky’s defense did its part, holding the Aggies to just three field goals in the third quarter while riding nine points from Epps and seven from Akhator.

“She made a couple of moves today that three weeks ago she wouldn’t have made,” Mitchell said of Akhator, who also had three assists and two steals. “She would’ve traveled and turned the ball over.

“I was super impressed, have been super impressed with all the post players. We’ve made a big jump in our post game the last three weeks.”

Texas A&M (21-8, 11-5) didn’t have a basket in the final 4:22 of the third quarter, and its 35.5 percent shooting for the game matched its lowest of the season.

Maci Morris, who hit some key baskets when the Aggies made a move in the fourth quarter, added 10 points for Kentucky, which shot 40.8 percent for the game.

But as good as the guards were for UK, including eight points, three rebounds and three assists for Thompson, it was the frontcourt’s night.

“Not one of my post players could stop one of their post players inside,” Blair said. “And normally we’d double down, but you can’t double down and leave those guards open. The post defense has to be better than that, and it wasn’t.”

Kentucky, which has won six straight league games by double figures for the first time in program history, goes into the postseason playing some of its best basketball.

It has Mitchell and his group excited to go back to work before the tournament starts Wednesday.

“I’m super proud of our players and excited to go to Jacksonville and see what we can do there,” he said.

▪  Epps knocked knees with a Texas A&M player during the second half and had to be helped off the court, but she came back into the game a few minutes later and seemed OK.

“Just a quick little something or another,” she said of her right knee bruise. “I’m fine.”

This story was originally published February 28, 2016 at 6:04 PM with the headline "UK women ‘physically whipped’ Texas A&M."