Kentucky All-Star girls struggle from the field, lose to Indiana 93-49

My old Kentucky home was anything but for the Kentucky girls' All-Stars on Friday evening.

Indiana used a 33-7 run to open the second half and rout the hosts 93-49 at Transylvania University's Beck Center.

Indiana Miss Basketball Ali Patberg, a Notre Dame signee, and Saint Louis-bound Jordyn Franz each scored 15 to pace the visitors, who trailed briefly with 8:07 in the first half but never looked back after a pair of Brittany Ward free throws put them up 25-23 at the 5:06 mark.

Ward, a Butler signee, scored six of her team's first 10 points in the second half to ignite its run. She finished with 10.

It is the third straight win in the series for Indiana, which swept Kentucky last season with a pair of double-digit victories. The Hoosiers will look to finish off this year's doubleheader at Saturday night in Indianapolis.

Indiana led just 30-25 at the break before running away. Neither team really found its stroke in the first half as each shot an abysmal 29.7 percent. Three-pointers proved to be a difference-maker in the opening period: Indiana connected on three of its eight attempts while Kentucky came up empty on all seven of its tries.

"We didn't really change anything at halftime," Indiana Coach Mark Holt said. "We just had to be more solid on defense."

Indiana held Kentucky to 24.3 percent shooting in the second half and 27 percent for the game. Indiana finished at 41 percent for the game and a blistering 55 percent (11-for-20) from behind the arc.

Holt screamed, "Don't take your foot off the gas," as his team went up 60-32 on a pair of Jenna Allen free throws. They didn't, finishing with 63 points to eclipse the teams' combined halftime total.

UK signee Morgan Rich and Alexis Brewer (West Virginia) led Kentucky with eight points apiece. Rich finished just 3-for-11 from the field while Brewer went 4-for-15.

"We did our homework on the Internet the best we could," Holt said of his scouting report. " ... We really liked what we saw on film from (Rich) so we wanted to make sure we had a really strong defender on her."

Bell County's Maci Morris, Kentucky's Miss Basketball and another UK signee, picked up three fouls in the first half and finished 2-for-5 with five points.

"We tried to put some sets in for Maci and Morgan and others, easy sets and play off their ability," Kentucky Coach Scott Sivills, of Calloway County, said. "We didn't cut very hard at times tonight. We played too much one-on-one at times, where we should've probably used a ball screen better. But I think we just couldn't buy a shot and things got out of hand."

Sivills was optimistic about his team's chances in Indianapolis tomorrow despite Friday's drubbing.

"We talked about how we want to represent our state tomorrow," he said. "We're a lot better team than what we showed tonight. I saw it in two-a-day practices the last seven days. ... All you can do is say tomorrow's a new day. Come back ready to play and see what happens."

This story was originally published June 12, 2015 at 8:39 PM with the headline "Kentucky All-Star girls struggle from the field, lose to Indiana 93-49."