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The Kentucky women?s basketball team struggled to find its offense, scoring a season-low 41 points while committing 22 turnovers in a 54-41 loss to Mississippi State on Sunday, Feb. 15 at Memorial Coliseum. Sara Potts and SeSe Helm led UK with 18 and 14 points, respectively. On a positive note, with 4,491 fans in attendance, UK set a new all-time season attendance record with a total of 63,179 fans this season. The old record of 61,975 was set in the 1982-83 season.
?It wasn?t much of an offensive game from our standpoint,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?Their pressure really bothered us, and their athleticism wouldn?t allow us to do much of what we wanted to do. We had trouble reversing the ball and entering the ball into the offense. I thought we were better prepared for their pressure than what we showed today. I don?t know the answer to it. We just didn?t handle their pressure very well.?
The Wildcats (9-14, 1-9 Southeastern Conference) hit just 16-of-50 from the field for 32 percent and the Bulldogs (11-12, 5-5 SEC) scored 28 points off a season-high 22 Wildcat turnovers. It was UK?s second loss to MSU this season. The Bulldogs took an 80-67 win in Starkville on Jan. 22.
UK took its only lead of the game in the opening minutes of the first half, pulling ahead by six points, 11-5, at the eight-minute mark. The Cats went without another field goal for over three minutes as the Bulldogs forced six turnovers and went on an 18-4 run for a 21-15 halftime lead. UK shot only 6-of-24 in the opening stanza for 25.0 percent while State hit 10-of-31 for 32.3 percent.
?I thought defensively we did some good things, and that?s where we spent a lot of time the last couple of days,? DeMoss said. ?We tried to throw some different looks at Tan (White) and handle their athleticism. But in turn, it may have hurt us, because our offensive execution was not good tonight. Our defense eventually broke down and they penetrated on us. Defensively, we?re capable of beating people. When you hold someone to 54 points, you should be able to beat them, but you must score on the other end. We?re just a little short on scorers, and we don?t have a lot of offensive weapons right now.?
In the second half it was more of the same as the Bulldogs continued to strike and UK struggled from the field. MSU built a 19-point lead, 47-28, with 6:13 remaining but UK refused to give in. The Cats pulled within eight points, 47-39, with less than three minutes to go but turnovers were again the catalyst. Three Wildcat miscues during that span gave State an opportunity to build back a final 13-point lead, 54-41.
?Kentucky has been playing hard, playing well and taking teams down to the wire, so we knew it would be a tough stand against a team that was going to play hard,? MSU Coach Sharon Fanning said. ?I was really proud of our focus.?
The Bulldogs have won four of their last five games and three straight vs. the Wildcats. MSU was led by juniors Tiania Burns and Tan White with 22 and 19 points, respectively. Sophomore Mamie McKinney grabbed a team-best 10 rebounds.
Potts nailed both of UK?s three-pointers and now has a total of 174 career treys. She needs only two more to become UK?s all-time leading three-point shooter. Stacey Reed (1991-95) holds the record at 176. Potts and Shambrica Jones led UK on the boards as both grabbed nine rebounds.
?Sara is such a competitor and one that keeps going,? Fanning said. ?She runs the floor hard, she can penetrate, she shoots the three, she is a ready shooter and she made a couple of buckets early. You don?t want a player to get confidence and she is one that even if she doesn?t make some of her shots she is a very confident kid. We surely didn?t want to give her any easy looks. She works for her points.?
The Wildcats lead the all-time series with MSU 14-13 and now own a 7-5 advantage when the game is played in Lexington.
Kentucky hits the road for its next game on Thursday, Feb. 19. The Cats will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., to take on the Lady Razorbacks at 8 p.m. ET at the Bud Walton Arena.
