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Freshman Angela Phillips hit a career-high three three-pointers to lead UK with 15 points
Nashville, Tenn. ? The Kentucky women?s basketball was plagued by foul trouble as they fell to No. 22 Vanderbilt on Thursday in Memorial Gym. Vanderbilt hit 25-of-27 from the free throw line for a 65-57 win in the teams? conference opener. Freshman Angela Phillips knocked down a career-high three three-pointers for a career-high 15 points. Shambrica Jones followed with 12 points while Jenny Pfeiffer added 11.
The game remained tight for the first 13 minutes of the game before Vanderbilt broke open a nine-point lead, on a 9-0 run led by Vanderbilt?s Abi Ramsey. The junior guard hit a three-pointer with 7:23 remaining in the half and the Commodores hit 10-of-10 free throws for a 30-24 halftime advantage. Phillips scored 12 of her 15 points in the first half while Jones added eight.
Kentucky (8-6, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) came out in the second half and continued to fight, pulling to within six with 5:20 to go in the game. Vanderbilt (13-1, 1-0 SEC) answered every UK run by knocking down free throws. The Commodores were a perfect 15-of-15 from the line in the second half while UK went 11-of-12 in the game. Wildcat leading scorer SeSe Helm saw only four minutes of action in the first half before being whistled with her second foul. She returned in the second half and dropped in a quick six points but was received her final foul with 4:01 still remaining in the game. Keiko Tate also fouled out, finishing with three points and four rebounds while Jones played most of the game with four fouls. Vanderbilt took its largest lead 61-49 with 1:13 left despite three-pointers from Phillips, Pfeiffer and Sara Potts in the final minutes.
?It hurt us with Helm getting in foul trouble,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?We basically played without her tonight. They shot 27 (free throws) and we shot 12. We wanted to play aggressive and the way the game was called, was the way it was called. It hurt us for them to go to the line that many times?
VU?s leading scorer and Kentucky native Jenni Benningfield did not see action until the second half limited with a foot injury. She was forced to play after UK came within four points, 43-39, with 6:59 left in the game.
?It was a hard fought battle,? DeMoss said. ?We were in the ball game for 40 minutes and without Benningfield in the game, it gave us an advantage. We played good enough defense to win this game tonight. I?m proud of this team and the heart they showed.?
Four Commodores scored in double figures led by Ashley Earley?s 16 points. Carla Thomas and Katie Antony added 14 each while Hillary Hager scored 10.
UK was outrebounded 42-32 and shot 31.3 percent (20-of-64) from the field compared to Vandy?s 40.4 percent on 19-of-47 shooting. Potts was held to eight points on the night, hitting just 2-of-13 from the field and 2-of-6 from behind the arc.
Vanderbilt now leads the all-time series 20-12 and is 11-4 vs. the Cats in Nashville.
UK will return home on Sunday, Jan. 11 to take on No. 12/9 Georgia at 2 p.m. ET in Memorial Coliseum.
