With win over Louisville, Kenny Brooks just gave UK fans a glimpse of what can lie ahead
When Kenny Brooks gave up his very good situation at Virginia Tech to come to the University of Kentucky, he arrived in Lexington with a bold vision for what women’s basketball at UK can be.
“I was winning (at Virginia Tech) but I wanted to win at a different type,” Brooks says. “I wanted to go to a different level.”
Simply put, Brooks believes the brand “Kentucky basketball” can be leveraged to build a women’s program at UK that is among the nation’s elite.
On Saturday night — with a capacity crowd pumping energy into a Memorial Coliseum that now gleams after in excess of $80 million of renovations — Brooks gave Kentucky fans a glimpse into the big, bold future he envisions for Wildcats women’s hoops.
In Brooks’ fourth game as top Cat, No. 20 Kentucky beat No. 18 Louisville 71-61 in overtime before a boisterous crowd of 6,117.
The victory allowed UK to snap a seven-game losing streak vs. its intrastate archrival.
It also ended a stretch of 13 consecutive Kentucky defeats against teams ranked in the AP Top 25.
Brooks — who at Virginia Tech lost the first seven times he coached against Louisville — has now beaten the Cardinals in four straight meetings spread over VPI and UK.
“I knew what this game meant,” Brooks said. “That’s why I came here. That’s why I was brought here — for games like this.”
In a contest that featured all the typical zeal of a Kentucky-Louisville grudgefest, the Wildcats won an overtime grinder while essentially playing only five players.
All five of UK’s starters played between 38 and 45 minutes. All five scored between nine and 19 points.
Kentucky point guard Georgia Amoore faced unrelenting full-court pressure from Louisville’s Ja’Leah Williams. In the halfcourt, Amoore was the target of physical double teams and aggressive hedging on pick-and-rolls attempts.
With all that, Amoore nevertheless played all 45 minutes, scoring 19 points and doling out nine assists. Given the unrelenting U of L defensive pressure she faced, Amoore’s eight turnovers were somewhat understandable.
“To play 45 minutes in this type of game, with this intensity, was remarkable,” Brooks said of his former Virginia Tech star.
Kentucky got big lifts from starting forwards Teonni Key and Amelia Hassett. The 6-foot-4 Key finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and five blocked shots. Hassett, a 6-foot-3 Australian, had nine points and 13 rebounds — all of them defensive.
“To me, Amelia Hassett proved something she hadn’t proved in earlier games,” Amoore said. “She had a grit about her tonight.”
Center Clara Strack (12 points, nine rebounds, three assists) and guard Dazia Lawrence (14 points, three rebounds, three assists) also came up huge for the Cats.
Giving Kentucky’s five “iron women” a lift was the boisterous crowd that formed the first sellout in the history of the newly renovated Memorial Coliseum.
“Tonight, it was loud and they brought great energy,” Amoore said. “That’s what was advertised to me as what ‘Big Blue Nation’ was.”
In beating U of L for the first time since former Kentucky star Makayla Epps was a junior in 2015-16, UK overcame its 24 turnovers and the 24 points off of those miscues that Louisville reaped.
The Wildcats also withstood a scalding stretch of 3-point shooting from Cardinals freshman Imari Berry. The Clarksville, Tennessee, product rifled in three straight treys from 2:38 to 1:08 of the third quarter to help U of L open a 46-39 lead.
For good measure, the 5-10 Berry made another 3-pointer just 31 seconds into the fourth quarter that pushed Louisville up by 49-44.
From that point on, however, the Kentucky defense limited U of L to three total field goals over the remainder of the game. Yet Louisville coach Jeff Walz said it was not the 3-of-18 field goal shooting in the game’s final 14:31 that did in the Cardinals.
What cost the Cardinals the game, Walz said, was going 9-of-15 from the foul line overall, including going 4-of-8 in the final 4:57 of regulation and the overtime period.
“You’ve got to make free throws,” Walz said. “We gave the game away. It is what it is.”
Brooks believes Kentucky’s streak-busting win over Louisville will have instate recruiting ramifications.
“This goes for something in recruiting,” Brooks said. “Us getting into (the state of) Kentucky and learning the young players ... this will help in that aspect.”
If you want to understand what Brooks believes Kentucky women’s basketball can be, one need only review the four days from last Wednesday through Saturday.
In that time frame, UK got a recruiting commitment from Massachusetts wing Kaelyn Carroll, the player ranked No. 15 nationally in the class of 2025; and from Minnesota point guard Maddyn Greenway, the player ranked No. 18 in the class of 2026.
The Cats also beat their nationally ranked intrastate rival before a roaring, sellout crowd in their newly renovated home arena.
“We had a heck of a week,” Brooks said.
Consider it your first glimpse of what Kenny Brooks believes Kentucky women’s basketball can be.
This story was originally published November 17, 2024 at 12:31 AM.
