Game against Gators offers UK women chance at redemption

Kentucky’s players watched the game tape of their Florida loss in January with disgusted faces, shaking their heads with each turnover.

There was a lot of head-shaking: UK turned over the ball a season-high 30 times in the 85-79 loss in Gainesville.

The Cats didn’t play sound defense. There was little energy and less effort.

“I remember that Florida really outhustled us,” senior guard Janee Thompson said after Kentucky’s victory over Louisiana State on Thursday set up a rematch with the No. 25 Gators in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals Friday. “They played a lot harder than us.”

The loss, which UK Coach Matthew Mitchell called “one of the real low points of the season,” showed No. 13 Kentucky just how hard it has to play to win games.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to see how much we’ve improved, to see if we were, in fact, tougher,” he said. “I believe that we are. I believe that we’ve made great, great strides.”

Kentucky worked hard after that game to become a tougher, more consistent team.

“The players have just really done a great job of taking that game as being one of the real disappointing times of our season,” Mitchell said. “They’ve transformed themselves since.”

Kentucky, which has won seven in a row, will find out just how much transformation has happened Friday at Veterans Memorial Arena against the Gators, who won three of their past four games to end the regular season.

It’s never an easy game for either team, with nine of the past 10 meetings being decided by single digits.

Kentucky (22-6) comes into the game gimpy with nagging injuries to key players after a 79-71 win over LSU. The Gators (22-7) are the fresher team, having not played in the tournament yet.

SEC Network analyst Nell Fortner called the matchup “wow.”

“That’s the game of the day right there,” she said. “Those two always do battle. It doesn’t matter where they’re playing, doesn’t matter what their records are; don’t know what it is about those two teams and coaches, but their games are always very hotly contested.”

Epps ices ‘real sore’ right knee

Knee pain from an injury Sunday was back again for Kentucky’s Makayla Epps.

With about five minutes to play in the second round of the tourney, the guard left the game for good with what she called a shooting pain in her knee after a layup in the Cats’ win over LSU.

Clearly in a lot of pain when she went to the bench, Epps ended the day with a massive ice pack on her right knee.

“It gave out,” she said of the knee, injured in a collision at Texas A&M on Sunday. “A bunch of pain shot through the front. It’s just real sore right now.”

Epps said X-rays when she returned to Lexington showed some tissue damage but nothing structural.

The junior opted not to play the final five minutes, saying the best thing for her knee was rest, which doesn’t come often in a tournament that, to win, UK will have to play four games in four days.

“I’m tough enough that I can play through some stuff, but sometimes you have to think about long-term,” Epps said of not returning. “I plan to be here a couple more nights.”

▪  Thompson and Maci Morris took shots to the nose in the win over LSU, with Morris having to leave the game to have cotton inserted to stop the bleeding. Both UK guards said they planned to play Friday.

Thompson, who also has suffered two ankle sprains this season, requested four ice bags in the post-game locker room.

“I’m getting old,” she said laughing.

Rice answers call

It’s been a tough road returning from a foot injury to start the season, but sophomore forward Alyssa Rice is hopeful that her performance Thursday against LSU is a sign of bigger things to come.

Rice matched her career high and set a season high in points with nine and had a season-best five rebounds in seven minutes for UK, including what Mitchell called “some crucial buckets” down the stretch.

“It just felt good to be able to contribute to help my team win,” said Rice, who hit all four of her shot attempts. “It’s been a long time coming. Coach has been really patient with me, and my teammates have been really encouraging with me.”

Outside issues?

For the first time since the first game of SEC play, Kentucky hit just one three-pointer, missing on 10 others from outside.

Thompson, who leads the team from long range hitting 40.7 percent, couldn’t quite pinpoint her 0-for-5 shooting night except to say it was a different arena and a different ball.

“I was 0-for-5 and I was pretty much wide open on every shot; just weren’t falling,” said Thompson, who had hit at least one three-pointer in 10 straight games before Thursday. “Now that we’re a little more familiar with the place, we’ll shoot better.”

This story was originally published March 3, 2016 at 9:33 PM with the headline "Game against Gators offers UK women chance at redemption."