If you were looking for pretty basketball Friday on the first day of the women’s college basketball season, inside Memorial Coliseum was not the place to find it. Playing with gargantuan expectations for the first time in this young century, the No. 9/10 Kentucky women’s basketball team struggled to pull away from Ohio Valley Conference opponent Morehead State. In a first half that was every bit as ugly as MSU coach Tom Hodges’ yellow, blue and white argyle-patterned suit, UK shot just 10 of 28 from the field, turned it over nine times and sputtered to a seven-point lead. But there’s something about ugly that fits this Kentucky women’s basketball team well. A season after ranking in the nation’s top 10 in turnover margin and steals, an in-your face, feisty defense looks to once again be the trademark of the 2010-11 team. Even when UK started to pile up the bricks in the first half, there was never much of a doubt of what was going to happen. Everybody knew Kentucky’s full-court trapping defense would eventually take over and bust through the wall of bricks.And it did as the Cats rolled 82-48 over Morehead State behind 36 turnovers in Friday’s season opener.”I think the second half we went back to our defensive fundamentals,” said sophomore A’dia Mathies, who finished with a team-high-tying 18 points. “We really pressured the ball and denied the ball like we should have done in the first half. In the second half we really turned it around and stepped it up.”The Cats used an unyielding second-half press to fuel an 18-0 run. Morehead State committed 20 turnovers in the second half and struggled in spurts to get the ball past midcourt. “Their defensive tenacity and intensity, especially in the second half, was really the difference in the game,” Hodges said. “They forced us into some awkward decisions in bad spots within our offense.”Hodges said there’s good reason UK is a top-10 team, but the first-year MSU coach pointed to Kentucky’s defense as to what may separate the Cats from any other team in the country.”It looked like there were eight of them out there a couple of times, maybe even nine or 10,” Hodges said. “There are so many things (that make them good on defense). The first thing you see when you turn on film – and film is not an adequate portrayal – is their tenacity and how hard they play. They play unbelievably hard every possession. Every pass within your offense is pressured. Every dribble, every time you bounce the ball, there is going to a hand in there to harass you and throw your timing off.”On a day when reigning Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Victoria Dunlap struggled to put the ball in the basket (4-of-16 shooting), it was her defense that led to 18 points and eventually buried the Eagles. Dunlap finished with seven steals, four blocks and countless deflections. Her defense is what helped her to the foul line late in the game and to another double-digit scoring day.”That is the number one thing when we approach the game is our defense,” Dunlap said. “We have to pressure the ball and get up in their face and deny while knowing where everybody is on the court. Once we get into more games and get up to game speed, we will get enough pressure to get people to turn the ball over.”Defense will have to be the staple, at least early on, while UK tries to find its way offensively.Head coach Matthew Mitchell, while loaded with returning stars Dunlap and Mathies, is trying to sort through a myriad of early season questions. The biggest of his concerns is how to replace injured point guard Amber Smith, where the six freshmen fit, and who will replace the energetic roles of departed players Lydia Watkins and Amani Franklin.”We are running a bunch of players in and out of there, so that is sort of a double-edged sword,” Mitchell said. “As a coach, you worry that there might not be much offensive cohesion, but then you start seeing the second half and I hope that a pattern is developing. In some games it is going to be a big margin like that but other games you may be down seven or eight and you can wear them down and push through a three- or four-point victory. That is sort of the thought process.”While Mitchell tries to figure out his lineup and while the offense tries to work though its kinks, it will be up to the defense to settle the team down and create easy transition baskets.”When you are creating steals and then laying it up and get back in the press again, that is discouraging to the other team,” Mitchell said. “It helps a lot when you can just lay it up and you don’t have to worry about throwing it into the post and missing the post and then your point guard didn’t do what she is supposed to.”

As Mitchell seemed to allude to, there were plenty of season-opening problems Friday. But when you can play ugly and win by 34, well, ugly doesn’t seem so bad anymore.Ugly seems to look just right for this UK Hoops team yet again.Snowden injures knee: It didn’t look as if things could get much worse during UK’s sluggish first half against Morehead State until Keyla Snowden went down with a right knee injury.

Snowden’s knee was awkwardly bent back when Morehead State’s Ashar Harris dove into Snowden as she tried to get a loose ball. Snowden laid face down on the court several minutes, banging her hand in pain and frustration several of times.The junior guard was eventually carried off the floor and into the locker room without putting any weight on her right leg. Snowden returned in the second half on crutches and with a large brace around her knee.Mitchell sounded as if it wasn’t serious but declined to speculate any further.”It is a little too early to tell,” Mitchell said. “It doesn’t look terrible, but we don’t really know. We will just have to wait until tomorrow. I just hesitate to give you any more information than that so we can see if it swells tomorrow. We are feeling OK about it right now but we just don’t know yet.”