UK Finds a Way, Guts out Win over Washington State

Knowing a break for the holiday was ahead of them, the Kentucky Wildcats were intent on not heading into their break on a sour note.

“We were talking about, ‘We gotta get this win,’ ” Maci Morris said. “Because we want to go into our break happy, not having to be drained of energy and moping around.”

UK seemed well on its way through a quarter of Wednesday afternoon’s matchup with Washington State, building a commanding 18-point lead on the visiting Cougars. Then all of a sudden, a loss before break turned into a realistic possibility.

“The energy dropped, the hustle dropped, some of the effort dropped,” Makayla Epps said. “We saw 26-8 at the end of the first, it’s kind of hard. We’re human. We’re kids. It happens.”

Washington State charged back, exploding for 28 points in the second quarter to cut UK’s lead to two points at the break. Then after Cameron Fernandez hit a 3-pointer to give the Cougars their first lead with 3:23 left in the third quarter, it became a back-and-forth affair, one UK won by a final of 69-67.

“It was a dogfight until the end,” said Epps, who scored 20 points. “We knew we were going to have to gut it out and just make a couple more plays, make another basket, get another stop.”

The last stop ended up being the difference, as UK forced Washington State’s Alexis Swedlund to attempt and miss a contested 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“It was a really up-and-down day for us, but in the end we won by one more point than necessary,” Mitchell said.

That’s the mentality for UK without point guard Taylor Murray, who missed her second game in a row with a broken finger on her non-shooting hand: find a way to win, no matter the means or the margin.

“It was just a real gutty performance,” Epps said. “We had to gut it out. They scored 28 in the second quarter. Without Taylor, we all had to step up big. We won the game by two points, so a win’s a win.”

Indeed it is, and now UK heads into the break with a 9-3 record. When the Cats return, it will be to practice and a pair of tough trips to Duke and Tennessee. Whether Murray will be available remains to be seen, but the approach won’t change regardless.

“It’s easy to see that we have a ton that we have to get better,” Mitchell said, “but to win these two games without Taylor is a real testament to our togetherness and our team coming and just everybody kind of chipping in and finding a way to win it.”